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I 



THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 




THE 'TERRA NOVA' ICE-BOUND. 



See page 38] 



[Frontispiece 



THE GREAT WHITE 
SOUTH 



BEING AN ACCOUNT OF EXPERIENCES WITH 
CAPTAIN SCOTT'S SOUTH POLE EXPEDITION 

AND OF 
THE NATURE LIFE OF THE ANTARCTIC 



BY HERBERT G. PONTING, F.R.G.S. 

AUTHOR OF "FUJISAN," "IN"lOTUS LAND : JAPAN," ETC., 
WITH 164 PHOTOGRAPHIC ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR, 
11 BY CAPTAIN SCOTT AND OTHERS, A MAP & 2 DRAWINGS, 

AND AN INTRODUCTION BY LADY SCOTT 




NEW YORK 
ROBERT M. McBRIDE & CO. 

1922 






I ''P' 



I 






Printed in Great Britain by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury, 



0^ r^ 



r 



DEDICATED 
TO THE MEMORY OF 

MY LATE CHIEF AND COMRADES 

WHO, AFTER REACHING THE SOUTH POLE, PERISHED ON 
THEIR HOMEWARD WAY, BEQUEATHING TO THEIR 
RACE A PRICELESS HERITAGE IN THE STORY 
OF THEIR HEROISM AND SELF- 
SACRIFICE, AND DEVOTION 
TO PURPOSE, IDEALS 
AND DUTY 



FOREWORD 

This book is written by one who had the honour to take part 
in that great adventure, The British Antarctic Expedition, 
1910-13. Its object is to present, in simple language and 
pictures, some fresh aspects of the setting of that epic Polar 
drama which must ever stand out in the annals of exploration 
for the beauty of character revealed in those who took the 
leading parts, and perished in the final scene. 

Whilst in the Great White South, during the winter of 
1911, Captain Scott expressed to the author the sentiment 
that it was much to be desired that the youth of the Nation 
should become conversant with such adventures as Polar 
expeditions, as this would help to stimulate * a fine and manly 
spirit in the rising generation.' The great explorer's words 
inspired the writing of this book. 

If, therefore, this volume should help to foster in some of 
our boys that love of adventure which has animated all our 
great Empire Builders; and in the hearts of some of our girls 
that approval of chivalrous qualities and gallant deeds which 
has been the inspiration of the sterner sex throughout the 
ages, the writer will feel that his reward, for the years spent 
in securing and preparing the material for this book, will have 
been richer than he would have dared to hope for when he 
sailed into the South. 

The author records, herewith, his gratitude to Lady Scott 
for graciously contributing the Introduction to this volume; 
his thanks to Messrs. John Murray of London, and Messrs. 
Dodd, Mead and Company of New York, for their kind 
permission to make many quotations herein from * Scott's 
Last Expedition ' ; and his warm sense of obligation to his 
comrades of the adventure for the assistance they rendered him 
in the South whenever opportunity permitted. 

H. G. P. 




viii] 



INTRODUCTION 
By lady SCOTT 

The author has given me the manuscript of his book to look 
over, and what good reading it is! That Mr. Ponting is a 
great artist with the camera is very widely known, but to 
find him also writing with so much lucidity and beauty is 
surprising and delightful. 

In his book, which teems with appreciation of his leader, 
there seems no word of his leader's appreciation of him. 
This will never do! So let my form of introduction be to 
quote my husband. 

Here, then, is what Captain Scott wrote in his diary soon 
after arriving in the South : 

* Ponting is the most delighted of men ; he declares this is 
the most beautiful spot he has ever seen, and spends all day 
and most of the night in what he calls " gathering it in " with 
camera and cinematograph . . . He is enraptured and uses 
expressions which in anyone else and alluding to any other 
subject might be deemed extravagant.' 

* Of the many admirable points in his work perhaps the 
most notable are his eye for a picture and the mastery he 
has acquired of ice subjects. The composition of his pictures 
is extraordinarily good ; he seems to know by instinct the exact 
value of foreground and middle distance and of the intro- 
duction of " life," whilst with more technical skill he emphasises 
the subtle shadows of the snow and reproduces its wonderfully 
transparent texture. He is an artist in love with his work, 
and it was good to hear his enthusiasm for results of the 
past and plans for the future.' 



X INTRODUCTION 

Personally, I know Mr. Ponting's work only by results. 
Over and over, and yet over again have I seen his cinemato- 
graph pictures of the Expedition, and I am still looking for 
further occasions of seeing them, for the beauty and wonder 
of them never varies. My husband, however, was marvelling 
at the dexterity of the artist, when he wrote on April 13th, 
1911: 

* Next is the dark-room in which Pouting spends the greater 
part of his life. Such a palatial chamber for the development 
of negatives and prints can only be justified by the quality of 
the work produced in it, and is only justified in our case by 
the possession of such an artist as Pouting. My eye took in 
the neat shelves with their array of cameras, etc., the lead-lined 
sink and automatic water tap, the two acetylene gas burners 
with their shading screens, and the general obviousness of all 
conveniences of the photographic art. 

* Here, indeed, was encouragement for the best results, and 
to the photographer be all praise, for it is mainly his hand which 
has executed the designs which his brain conceived. In this 
may be seen the results of a traveller's experience. Ponting 
has had to fend for himself under primitive conditions in a 
new land ; the result is a " handy man " with every form of 
tool, and in any circumstances. Thus, when building 
operations were to the fore and mechanical labour scarce, 
Ponting returned to the shell of his apartment with only the 
raw material for completing it. In the shortest possible space 
of time shelves and tanks were erected, doors hung and windows 
framed, and all in a workmanlike manner commanding the 
admiration of all beholders. 

' It was well that speed could be commanded for such work, 
since the fleeting hours of the summer season had been all 
too few to be spared from the immediate service of photo- 
graphy. Ponting's nervous temperament allowed no waste of 
time. For him fine weather meant no sleep; he decided that 
lost opportunities should be as rare as circumstances would 
permit.' 



INTRODUCTION xi 

To Mr, Ponting (in common, I like to believe, with all true 
artists), it is more important that good work should be done, 
than that he, himself, should do it ; and the following quotation 
shows how freely he gave of his own knowledge so that others 
should * train on ' to replace him — eager that his pupils should 
get the best out of material that might come their way, and 
not his. That good work should at all costs be done, no matter 
who was the man to do it, seems, from the following, to 
have been Mr. Ponting's aim: 

* The photography craze is in full swing. Ponting's 
mastery is ever more impressive, and his pupils improve day 
by day; nearly all of us have produced good negatives. . . . 
Miy incursion into photography has brought me in close touch 
with him, and I realise what a very good fellow he is ; no pains 
are too great for him to take to help others, whilst his 
enthusiasm for his own work is unlimited. ... I would 
describe him as sustained by artistic enthusiasm. This world 
of ours is a different one to him than it is to the rest of us. 
He gauges it by its picturesqueness. His joy is to reproduce 
its pictures artistically, his grief to fail to do so. No attitude 
could be happier for the work he has undertaken, and one 
cannot doubt its productiveness. His results are wonderfully 
good, and if he is able to carry out the whole of his programme 
we shall have a photographic record which will be absolutely 
new in expeditionary work.' 

Mr. Ponting had been a voracious traveller, and had sought 
out beauty in many strange and unfamiliar quarters of the 
world, taking splendid pictures as he went. Imagine, then, 
what a delight to the Antarctic travellers were the lantern- 
slides which he had the imagination and forethought to take 
South with him. These final quotations from my husband's 
diary speak for themselves : 

'May 29th, 1911. — To-night Ponting gave us a charming 
lecture on Japan with wonderful illustrations of his own. He 



xii INTRODUCTION 

is happiest in his descriptions of the artistic side of the 
people, with whom he is in fullest sympathy. So he took us 
to see the flower pageants, the joyful festivals of the cherry- 
blossom, the wistaria, the iris and chrysanthemum — ^and the 
paths about the lotus gardens where mankind meditated in 
solemn mood. We had pictures, too, of Nikko and its 
beauties, of temples and great Buddhas. Then, in more 
touristy strain, of volcanoes and their craters, waterfalls and 
river-gorges, tiny tree-clad islets — ^that feature of Japan — ■ 
baths and their bathers, Ainos and so on. His descriptions 
were well given and we all of us thoroughly enjoyed our 
evening.' 

^August 22nd, 1911. — ^Yesterday Ponting gave us a lecture 
on his Indian travels. He tells his story well, and his pictures 
are wonderful. In personal reminiscence he is distinctly 
dramatic — he thrilled us a good deal last night with a vivid 
description of a sunrise in the sacred city of Benares. In 
the first dim light the waiting, praying multitude of bathers, 
the wonderful ritual and its incessant performance; then, as 
the sun approaches, the hush — ^the effect of thousands of 
worshippers waiting in silence — a silence to be felt. Finally, 
as the first rays appear, the swelling roar of a single word from 
tens of thousands of throats : " Awm." It was artistic to 
follow this picture of life with the gruesome horrors of the 
ghat. This impressionist style of lecturing is very attractive 
and must essentially cover a great deal of ground. So we saw 
Jeypore, Udaipore, Darjeeling, and a confusing number of 
places — temples, monuments, and tombs in profusion, with 
remarkable pictures of the Taj Mahal — horses, elephants, 
alligators, wild boars, and flamingoes — warriors, fakirs, and 
nautch girls — ^an impression here and an impression there. 

* It is worth remembering how attractive this style can 
be. In lecturing one is inclined to give too much attention 
to connecting links which join one episode to the other. A 
lecture need not be a connected story; perhaps it is better 
it should not be.' 



INTRODUCTION xiii 

'September 10th, 1911. — The second weekly lecture was 
given by Ponting. His store of pictures seems unending and 
has been an immense source of entertainment to us during 
the winter. His lectures appeal to all, and are fully attended. 
This time we had pictures of the Great Wall and other 
stupendous monuments in North China. Ponting always 
manages to work in details concerning the manners and customs 
of the people in the countries of his travels ; on Friday he told 
us of Chinese farms and industries, of hawking and other 
sports, and, most curious of all, of the pretty amusement of 
flying pigeons with seolian whistling-pipes attached to their 
tail feathers.' 

'June 22nd, 1911. — Midwinter Day. By the end of dinner 
a very cheerful spirit prevailed, and the room was cleared for 
Ponting and his lantern. He had cleverly chosen this oppor- 
tunity to display a series of slides made from his own local 
negatives. I have never so fully realised the value of his 
work as on seeing these beautiful pictures. They so easily 
outclass anything of their kind previously taken in these 
regions. The audience cheered vociferously.' 

* Ponting would have been a great asset to our party if 
only on account of his lectures, but his value as pictorial 
recorder of events becomes daily more apparent. No expedi- 
tion has ever been illustrated so extensively, and the only 
difficulty will be to select from the countless subjects that 
have been recorded by his camera.' 

Surely Mr. Ponting has it in his power greatly to delight! 

Kathleen Scott. 



BRITISH ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION, 1910-13 

SHORE PARTY 

Officers 
Robert Falcon Scott. . .- Captain, C.V.O., R.N. 

E. R. G. R. Evans Lieutenant, R.N. 

Victor L. A. Campbell Lieutenant, R.N. 

Henry R. Bowers. , . .Lieutenant, R.I.M. 

Lawrence E. G. Gates Captain, 6th Inniskilling 

Dragoons. 

G. Murray Levick Surgeon, R.N. 

Edward L. Atkinson Surgeon, R.N., Parasitolo- 
gist. 

Scientific Staff 

Edward Adrian Wilson...;. . .:. ..B.A., M.B., Chief of Scien- 
tific Staff, and Zoologist. 

George C. Simpson D.Sc, Meteorologist. 

T. Griffith Taylor B.A., B.Sc, Geologist. 

Edward W. Nelson .r.. Biologist. 

Frank Debenham B.A., B.Sc, Geologist. 

Charles S. Wright B.A., Physicist. 

Raymond E. Priestley Geologist. 

Herbert G. Pouting. Camera Artist. 

Cecil H. Meares In charge of dogs. 

Bernard C. Day Motor Engineer. 

Apsley Cherry-Garrard B.A., Assistant Zoologist. 

Tryggve Gran... . .:. Sub. -Lieut., Norwegian N.R., 

Ski Expert. 
Men 

W. Lashly.^.- -.Chief Stoker, R.N. 

Thomas Clissold ,. Cook, late R.N. 

W. W. Archer. .>r,7 Cook, late R.N. (2nd year). 

Edgar Evans Petty Officer, R.N. 

Thomas Crean. . ;,>. Petty Officer, R.N. 

Robert Forde Petty Officer, R.N. 

Thomas S. Williamson Petty Officer, R.N. (2nd year). 

Patrick Keohane Petty Officer, R.N. 

George P. Abbot. ,«. Petty Officer, R.N. 

Frank V. Browning Petty Officer, R.N. 

Harry Dickason Able Seaman, R.N. 

F. J. Hooper ,.. . . „-. .Steward, late R.N. 

Anton Omelchenko Groom, Russian. 

Dimitri Geroff .-.-. .Dog Driver, Russian. 

xiv 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

FOREWORD Vii 

INTRODUCTION, BY LADY SCOTT . . . . . ix 

BRITISH ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION, I9IO-I3 . . . xiv 

CHAPTER I 

THE EXPEDITION LEAVES ENGLAND 

Meeting with Captain Scott — ^Disappointed enthusiasts — ^My future ship- 
mates — Meares leaves for Siberia — Preparing for the South — ■ 
Departure from London — ^The Terra Nova at New Zealand — ^New 
Zealand hospitality — Sir John Kinsey ...... 1-8 

CHAPTER II 

INTO THE ' FIFTIES ' 

Departure from Port L3rttelton — ^The picturesque Terra Nova — ^The 
Expedition leaves New Zealand — Our crowded deck — The dogs and 
ponies — The ship's dark-room — Seabirds — •' Uncle Bill ' — An 
anecdote — Mr. Cheetham, the Bo 'sun — ' In for dirty weather ' — ■ 
The Terra Nova in a gale — ^The dark-room flooded — The port 
bulwarks carried away — The pump choked — The engine-room 
swamped — Efi&ciency of Lashly and Williams — Evans clears the 
pump — Superb seamanship — A close call .... 9-18 

CHAPTER III 

THE 'terra nova' ENTERS THE PACK-ICE 

Into lonely seas — ^Valuable scientific work — The ward-room — The cabins 
— ^Life below deck — ' Show a leg, gentlemen ! ' — Not a musical 
party — About chanties — Songs the sailors sang — Captain Scott out- 
lines his plans to me — ^Vocabulary of the forecastle — 'A quick-witted 
Petty Officer — ^Dr. Wilson snares sea-birds — Lagynorynchus ohscuvus 
— ^We feel the breath of frozen seas — The first iceberg — A magni- 
ficent spectacle — ^The Terra Nova enters the ' Pack ' — Hard luck to 
meet the ice so early — A never-to-be-forgotten scene . . 19-30 

b XV 



xvi CONTENTS 

CHAPTER IV 

BATTLING WITH THE ICE-FLOES 

PAGES 

We cross the Antarctic Circle — ' Conning ' the ship from the ' crow's-nest ' 
— ^The Terra Nova's massive build — Ramming the ice-floes — ^Watering 
the ship — ^Mr, Cheetham's record — A cheery Bo 'sun — ^The exquisite 
Snow petrels — ^The first seals — The first penguins — ^The penguins and 
the potato — Icebound again — The ship imprisoned in the ice — 
Ski exercise on the ice-floes — The dogs have a run — A whale in the 
Pack — ^A knowing ' Emperor ' — Immense bergs in the offing — A 
berg like an island — Kinematographing in the Pack — An ominous- 
looking place — A weathered iceberg — Iceberg discussions — ^The 
jnost wonderful of all Christmas Eves — Christmas in the Pack . 31-43 



CHAPTER V 

THE GREAT ICE BARRIER 

Interesting operation aboard — Manning the pumps — Lieutenant Rennick 
— Taking soundings — Globigerena ooze — Our biologists — The bio- 
logists' microscope — Diatoms and minute organic life — ^The Current 
Meter — Lieutenant Pennell — Bowers' stoical ordeal — ^Anomalous 
weather conditions — The floes well broken ahead — A wonderful 
ice-garden — The last of the pack-ice — Open water in the Ross Sea 
— The new year in the Ross Sea — ' Ice-blink ' on the Great Ice Barrier 
— Ross Island and Mt. Terror — ^The Great Ice Barrier — Authorities 
differ as to whether the Barrier is aground or afloat — ^The birth-place 
of the icebergs — Impossible to land — The ship's course laid for 
McMurdo Sound . . . , . . . . . 44-55 



CHAPTER VI 

WE LAND ON ROSS ISLAND 

A wonderful penguin colony — Orca gladiator — First view of Mt. Erebus 
— ^The brilliance of the midnight sun — We sight the Shackleton hut — 
Mt. Erebus — ^The Royal Society Range — ^Mt. Lister — Captain 
Scott decides to winter at Cape Evans — Unloading the ship — The 
penguins and the dogs ....... 56-62 



CHAPTER VII 

SOME PHOTOGRAPHING EPISODES 

The weather favours us-r— An adventure with Killer whales — I lose my 
favourite lens — ^The midnight sun — ^A wonderful grotto — Beautiful 
colouring of the grotto — Wright has a narrow escape — Treacherous 
ice — A dismaying experience — ^The Killer again — A searchlight into 
the depths 63-71 



/ 



CONTENTS xvii 

CHAPTER VIII 

WE COMPLETE OUR WINTER QUARTERS 

PACKS 

The Terra Nova at the icefoot — First visit ashore — Scott's 
right-hand men — Rapid building of the Hut — A fresh-water 
cascade — Skua Lake — Seals frequent the Cape — ^Method of killing 
a seal — ^Fun with the penguins — A ski-ing feat — Gran's mishap — 
The ice deteriorating — ^We lose one of the motors — Warmth of the 
sun — ^The invigorating climate — The fine weather breaks — Mt. Erebus 
shows signs of activity — Capt. Scott visits Hut Point — ^The first cold 
snap — The Terra Nova runs on to a rock — Capt. Scott and I visit an 
ice cornice — ^The sea-ice goes out ..... 72-81 



CHAPTER IX 

EXPLORING OPERATIONS COMMENCE 

Glacier tongue — One of the ponies breaks through the ice — ^The Southern 
Party away — Lillie's remarkable trawl catches — Concerning whales 
— KiUer whales — ^The great Rorquals — How whales spout — 'Distance 
sounds can be heard — ^A whale blows alongside the ship — A shapely 
creature — A whale ' breaching ' — A sportive whale — ^The Western 
Geological Party landed — 'Meeting with the Norwegians — ^Two 
ponies have to swim ashore — The ship returns to New Zealand 82-92 



CHAPTER X 

THE BARNE GLACIER AND CAPE ROYDS 

Staking the glacier — A volcanic pillar — A maze of crevasses — About 
crevasses — ^Measuring the flow of the glacier — Sir Ernest Shackleton's 
hut — The penguinry deserted — Features of Cape Royds — An interest- 
ing locality — An octopus — A remarkable spectacle — Return to 
Cape Evans ......... 93-101 



CHAPTER XI 

THE FREEZING OF THE SEA 

Ice ' effects ' after the gale — Features of our cape — Conical mounds — 
Ponds — Seals bask on the Cape — ^Wind Vane Hill and the meteoro- 
logical instruments — Break up of Glacier Tongue — ^The Delbridge 
Islands — ^The freezing of the sea — ' Frost smoke ' — How the ice 
forms — Ice furrows — Some icebergs stranded — The Southern Party 
seen at Hut Point — Return of the Southern Party — Remarkable ad- 
ventures — Caught in a blizzard — A memorable evening — A miracu- 
lous escape — ^Disaster to the ponies — A tragedy narrowly averted 
— All are pleased with the Hut ...... 102-13 



xviii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XII 

FAREWELL TO THE SUN 

PAGES 

Mt. Erebus — ^A marvellously beautiful sight — The steam cloud from 
the crater — ^Testing the air-currents — Dr. Simpson's balloons — 
The magnetograph — Our meteorological instruments — Telephonic 
communication — Sunset colouring — ^Dr. Wilson's method of sketch- 
ing — A picturesque iceberg — A meditative Emperor — The sun deserts 
us — Beautiful earth shadows — A cavern in a glacier — Nelson's bio- 
logical researches — The fish-trap — Flashlighting fishing operations 

114-22 

CHAPTER XIII 

THE POLAR WINTER 

The Hut now full — ^Description of the Hut — My dark-room — ^Dr. Atkin- 
son's laboratory — ' Simpson's Comer ' — The ' blizzometer ' — Tem- 
perature of the Hut — ^Dr. Wilson's winter work — The ' Tenements ' — 
Good-natured banter — ^The ' player ' piano — The gramophone — An 
ingenious cook — Our commissariat — Life in the Hut — The Night 
Watch — About Aurora — Failure to secure satisfactory Aurora photo- 
graphs — Meteorological stations — The Arch Berg collapses — Flash- 
lighting an iceberg — An anecdote of Capt. Scott — A lecture season 
inaugurated — Winter entertainment — The South Polar Times — 
' The Sleeping-bag ' — ^Midwinter dinner — A Christmas-tree and snap- 
dragon — ^A wonderful Aurora display — A gorgeous spectacle . 123-44 

CHAPTER XIV 

THE RETURN OF THE SUN 

Departure of the Cape Crozier Party — ^Dr. Atkinson lost — His hand frost- 
bitten — A terrific storm — The glory of the Polar night — The majesty 
of silence — ^A wonderful echo — Inactivity produces sleeplessness — 
Piercing a hole in the ice — Monotony of developing films — ^Twilight 
again — Efiect of approaching daylight — ^Wright's hardihood — Return 
of the Cape Crozier Party — ^An heroic adventure — Emperor penguins' 
eggs — Winter discussions — ^Discussion on Travel — Good-natured 
banter — A good Polar story — Capt. Scott and I watch the sun 
return — The birth of Spring ...... 145-59 

CHAPTER XV 

THE EARLY SPRING 

Outstanding personalities — ^Dr. Wilson — Lieut. Bowers — Capt. Oates — 
Petty Of&cer Evans — The staunchest tie that bound the Expedition 
■ — A kindly Leader — Captain Scott's environment — ^A lovable trait 
of his character — Scott, a man of moods — Intimate talks with Capt. 
Scott — Scott decides to take up photography — ^My other photo- 
graphic pupils — Photographing difficulties— -Care necessary when 
photographing — An unpleasant predicament — ^A wonderful iceberg — 
The palace of Jack Frost — Clissold falls oflE an iceberg — A dreadful 
dilemma — A rescue party arrives — Clissold 's narrow escape . 160-75 



CONTENTS xix 

CHAPTER XVI 

THE START FOR THE POLE 

PAGES 

Scott's reliance on Bowers — Preparations for the great journey — ^Hoosh 
— ^About our dogs — ^Method of driving — Julick's adventure — Dog 
characteristics — Capt. Oates, a bom horseman — ^A football mishap 
— The final overhaul of the motors — ^Another mishap — Resource 
of Day and Lashly — Capt. Scott's final instructions — Uncle Bill's 
request — Meares and I leave for Hut Point — An inspiring sight — 
The Vince Cross — The ponies reach Hut Point — My fareweU to 
Scott and Wilson — Into the Great Alone .... 160—89 

CHAPTER XVII 

THE POLAR SUMMER 

Anton and I return from Hut Point — A strenuous day — A realistic 
dream — Frequent disappointment on account of bad weather 
— Glorious skyscapes — The warmth of the sun — ^The joys of summer 
— The beauty of the icebergs — Happy camera days — A surprise for 
the cook — ^A matchless panorama — A remarkable telephotograph 

190-99 

CHAPTER XVIII 

CONCERNING SEALS 

No land animals in the Antarctic — ^The Sea-leopard — The WeddeU seal — 
Colouring — No fear when on ice — Seal characteristics — Thickness of 
blubber — Breathing holes in the ice — ^Through an ice window — 
Method of catching fish — ^Method of cutting the ice — ^Valuable kine- 
matograph records — ^The calving season — Affection for young — Sense 
of scent — ^The first plunge — Seals seen fighting — ^An extraordinary 
predicament — Vocal propensities — An unexpected attack — Bitten 
by a seal — ^A thrilling drama — The Australian reporter . . 200-16 

CHAPTER XIX 

THE BUCCANEERS OF THE SOUTH 

Giant petrels — Rapacity of the skua-gull — Fondness for fresh water — 
Appearances deceptive — ^Nesting habits — Habit of striking intruders 
— Disgusting habits — ^Truculent scamps — ^A blow in the eye — 
Thieving propensities — ^The skua suspected of eating its young — ^The 
chicks — Inherited instincts — Regurgitating — Craftiness of the skua 
— Ugly fledglings — The skuas leave us ..... 217-26 

CHAPTER XX 

THE REAL INHABITANTS 

Varieties of penguins — ^Valuable results of Cape Crozier Expedition — 
The Emperor penguin — A courtly creature — ^A comical experience 
— The Adelie penguin — Lovable little people — Roving tendencies — • 
Adelie characteristics — Comedians of the South — The first inter- 



XX CONTENTS 

PAGES 

view — The Adelie will stand no nonsense — Looking backwards — 
An anecdote — Penguins love fun — The nesting-season — Ecstatics — 
A penguin Lochinvar — The ' glad eye ' — Seeking a mate — A bully 
vanquished — ^Friendly advances — Building the nest — -Inveterate 
thieves — Habit of stealing stones — Brawling hens — Period of incu- 
bation — Airing the eggs — An inveterate enemy — Some remarkable 
films — Flooded out — Habits explicable and otherwise — A blizzard 
breaks — ^The penguinry snowed up — Nesting under dismaying 
conditions — Snow-bound for ten days — The chicks hatched — 
Bustling activity — ^Method of feeding chicks — Penguin organisation 
— How the youngsters are provided for — Shedding their down — 
The chicks take to the sea — In the moult — ^The penguins leave on the 
approach of winter ........ 227-60 

CHAPTER XXI 

THE RETURN OF THE ' TERRA NOVA ' 

The ship sighted — A wonderful mirage — The ship moors to the ice — 
News from home — The Western Party — ^The Northern Party — 
The Northern Party marooned — Fruitless endeavours to reach them 
— ^Magnificent leadership and resource — Homeward bound — Fighting 
with mountainous seas — Sperm whales sighted — ^Arrival at New 
Zealand — We hear of Amundsen's success .... 261-68 

CHAPTER XXII 

THE SOUTH POLE 

Experiences of the Motor Party — Failure of the motors — Night-marches 
— ^The first pony shot — Shambles Camp — The dog-teams return — 
The Beardmore Glacier — The Supporting Parties return — Lieut, 
Evans disabled with scurvy — Gallantry of Crean and Lashly — 
Evans' life saved — The Leader's tributes to his comrades — Fore- 
stalled — ^At the Pole — Scott's devotion to purpose — The footfalls of 
Death — Anxiety regarding P.O. Evans — Snow-blindness — The 
Leader's bad fall — Dr. Wilson's devotion to science — A desperate 
situation — Serious condition of P.O. Evans — ^Death of Petty Of&cer 
Evans — The survivors reach Shambles Camp — Intense cold and 
bad surfaces — A very tight place — Dr. Wilson's devotion — Bravery 
of Captain Oates — Captain Gates' Farewell — Self-sacrifice sublime — 
Within eleven miles of food — The fateful blizzard — ' The end cannot 
be far ! ' — ^The Search Party — ^Discovery of the bodies of Capt. 
Scott, Dr. Wilson, and Lieut. Bowers — ^The Leader's last message 
' Had we lived ' — A noble epitaph .... 269-93 

THE END OF THE EXPEDITION 294 

EPILOGUE 300 

IN MEMORIAM . 306 

(Reprinted by permission of the Proprietors of Punch) . 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



All illustrations are from photographs by the Author, except where 
otherwise stated. 



THE ' TERRA NOVA ' ICE-BOUND 



Frontispiece 



A STUDIO PORTRAIT ,.,..... 

CAPTAIN ROBERT FALCON SCOTT, R.N., C.V.O., ON THE BRIDGE OF THE 
' TERRA NOVA ' ....... 

From a kinematograph fihn. 

DECK OF THE * TERRA NOVA,' FROM THE POOP . 

CAPTAIN OATES AND SOME OF THE PONIES 

THE 'terra nova' IN A GALE .... 

SOME OF THE CREW OF THE ' TERRA NOVA ' . 

OFFICERS AND SCIENTISTS IN THE WARDROOM . 

THE HELMSMAN AT THE WHEEL .... 

THE BO'SUN WITH AN ICE-ANCHOR . 

LIEUTENANT BRUCE LEADING A CHANTY 

MR. WILLIAMS, CHIEF ENGINEER .... 

AN ANTARCTIC TABULAR ICEBERG .... 

THE ' TERRA NOVA ' ENTERING THE PACK-ICE 

VIEW FROM THE MAINTOP IN THE PACK ,., 

A ' LEAD ' IN THE PACK ...... 

PENGUINS IN THE PACK-ICE ..... 

AN ICEBERG MIDWAY ON ITS JOURNEY TO DECAY 
KINEMATOGRAPH ING IN THE PACK .... 

CHRISTMAS EVE IN THE PACK ..... 

LIEUTENANT H. DE P. RENNICK ..... 

xxi 



FACING PAGE 

viii 



10 

12 
16 
21 
21 
24 
24 
24 
24 
28 
28 
32 
32 
36 
40 
40 
42 
46 



XXll 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



FACING PAGE 



LIEUTENANT H. L. PENNELL 

BO'SUN A. CHEETHAM . ,. 

LIEUTENANT W. BRUCE ,., 

THE 'terra nova' IN HEAVY ICE 

WELL-BROKEN ICE-FLOES . 

ICE-BLINK OVER THE GREAT ICE BARRIER 

MIDNIGHT SUN IN THE ROSS SEA ,.. 

THE GREAT ICE BARRIER AND MT. TERROR 

THE CLIFFS OF CAPE CROZIER 

DRAWING ILLUSTRATING THE LOCALITY OF ROSS ISLAND 

BIRTH OF AN ICEBERG 

CAPE BIRD AND MT. EREBUS 

THE RAMPARTS OF MT. EREBUS 

PONIES TETHERED ON THE ICE 

ATTACKED BY KILLER WHALES 

From a painting by Ernest Linzell 

A GROTTO IN AN ICEBERG . 

DEATH OF AN ICEBERG 

THE ' TERRA NOVA ' AT THE ICE-FOOT 

WEDDELL SEALS AT CAPE EVANS 

FUN WITH THE PENGUINS 

MT. EREBUS SHOWING SIGNS OF ACTIVITY 

THE HUT, AFTER THE SEA-ICE WENT OUT . 

A SEAL RISING NEAR THE SHIP 

BIOLOGIST LILLIE WITH A LARGE SILICEOUS SPONGE 

KILLER WHALES BLOWING AND SOUNDING 

THE ' TERRA NOVA ' LEAVES FOR NEW ZEALAND 

THE SOUTHERN PARTY, 1911 

THE BARNE GLACIER 

THE SHACKLETON EXPEDITION HUT 

PROBING A CREVASSE . ;., 

CAPE ROYDS, LOOKING SOUTH . 

CAPE ROYDS, LOOKING NORTH . 

AN ICEBERG OFF CAPE ROYDS . 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



XXUI 



SEALS BASKING OFF CAPE EVANS 
A MOZAIC OF SMALL PANCAKE FLOES 
ICE FURROWS AFTER A BLIZZARD 
THE FREEZING OF THE SEA 



FACING PACK 

104 
106 
106 
108 



THE MONARCH OF THE ANTARCTIC SOLITUDES, MT. EREBUS (13,500 
FEET, 16 MILES DISTANT), FROM THE SEA-ICE 

DR. SIMPSON AT THE MAGNETOMETER, AND SENDING UP A BALLOON 
TO TEST THE AIR CURRENTS 



miles. 



•ROOM 



THE CRATER LIP OF MT. EREBUS 

A telephotograph from a distance of 15 

HAULING UP THE FISH-TRAP ,., 

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC DARK-ROOM 

THE AUTHOR AT WORK IN THE DARK 

DR. ATKINSON IN HIS LABORATORY 

DR. WILSON COLOURING A SKETCH 

THE TENEMENTS 

THE geologists' CUBICLE 

PETTY officers CREAN AND EVANS MENDING SLEEPING-BAGS 

CLISSOLD, THE COOK, MAKING BREAD 

THE ARCH BERG IN WINTER . 

THE AUTHOR LECTURING ON JAPAN (a COMPOSITE PHOTOGRAPH 

MIDWINTER DAY DINNER, 1911 

A BLIZZARD BREAKING 

DR. Atkinson's frost-bitten hand 

THE HOME OF THE ECHOES 

PIERCING A HOLE FOR THE FISH-TRAP 

PHYSICIST WRIGHT OBSERVING AN OCCULTATION 

THE CAPE CROZIER PARTY 

MEARES AND OATES AT THE BLUBBER STOVE 

CAPTAIN SCOTT WRITING UP HIS JOURNAL . 

THE AUTHOR IN THE ANTARCTIC 

THE CASTLE BERG IN SUMMER . 

CLISSOLD ON THE MATTERHORN BERG 



114 

116 
116 

122 

124 

124 

126 

126 

129 

129 

134 

134 

138 

138 

142 

146 

146 

150 

154 

154 

156 

162 

164 

169 

171 

173 



XXIV 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



FACING PAGB 



E. L. NELSON AT HIS BIOLOGICAL HOLE 
A DOG-TEAM RESTING BY AN ICEBERG 

KRISAROVITSA . 

TRESOR ,. 

OSMAN ;. . . . 

VIDA .... 

DR. WILSON AND ' NOBBY ' 

LIEUTENANT BOWERS AND ' VICTOR ' 

CAPTAIN GATES AND ' CHRISTOPHER ' f., 

PETTY OFFICER EVANS AND ' SNATCHER ' . 

THE MOTOR PARTY r. ,.,.... 

THE AUTHOR EXERCISING 

CAPTAIN SCOTT WITH THE FOOTBALL 

HUT POINT ..... |. . 

A MEAL ON THE MARCH .... 

THE SUMMER GLORY OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN ,. 

CIRRUS CLOUDS OVER THE BARNE GLACIER . 

THE AUTHOR PULLING HIS PHOTOGRAPHIC SLEDGE 

AN ICEBERG IN MIDSUMMER .... 

TELEPHOTOGRAPH OF MT. LISTER (70 MILES DISTANT) 

THE AUTHOR AND HIS TELEPHOTO CAMERA 

WEDDELL SEALS : MOTHER AND CALF 

LOOKING FURTIVELY BACKWARDS 

A SEAL AT A BREATHING HOLE 

A SEAL ' SAWING ' THE ICE 

STRUGGLING OUT WITH ITS SIDE FLIPPERS 

MOTHER AND BABY . 

WEDDELL SEAL SUCKLING CALF 

WEDDELL SEAL SUCKLING CALF 

WEDDELL SEAL WITH TWINS i-. 

MOTHER, AND CALF A FEW DAYS OLD 

WEDDELL SEALS FIGHTING 

-AN EASY EXIT HOLE 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



XXV 



A WEDDELL SEAL ABOUT TO DIVE 

SKUA-GULLS CLEANING A SEAL SKIN 

ANTARCTIC SKUA-GULLS 

SETTLING ON THE EGGS 

SKUA-GULLS AND NEST 

SKUA-GULL AND CHICK 

FEEDING THE CHICK 

SKUA CHICKS, ONE DAY OLD 

CHICK AND EGGS, SHOWING SIZE 

AN EMPEROR PENGUIN 

ADELIE PENGUINS . 

ADELIE PENGUINS AT CAPE ROYDS 

ADELIE PENGUINS IN A STATE OF RAPTURE 

THE ' STONY STARE ' . 

THE ' GLAD EYE ' 

WANTED — A HUSBAND 

THE PROPOSAL 

THE INSPECTION 

THE BETROTHAL 

A THIEF ABOUT TO STEAL A STONE 

TWO COCKS QUARRELLING OVER A HEN 

BUILDING THE NEST 

ADMIRING THE EGGS 

A LITTLE CARESS 

CEREMONY OF CHANGING GUARD 

SKUA-GULLS STEALING PENGUINS' EGGS 
Five kinematograph studies. 

SITTING PENGUINS SNOWED-UP AFTER A BLIZZARD 
Three studies. 

' HERE ARE MY EGGS ' . . 

' AND HERE, THE CHICKS ' 

GETTING DIFFICULT . 

NO LONGER POSSIBLE 

MIDNIGHT SUN IN PENGUIN LAND 



FACING PAGE 

. 214 

. 218 

. 218 

,. 220 

. 220 

. 220 

. 220 

. 223 

. 223 

. 229 

. 231 

. 234 

. 238 

. 238 

. 238 

. 240 

. 240 

. 240 

. 240 

;. 242 

. 242 

. 245 

. 245 

. 245 

. 245 

. 248 

. 252 

. 256 

. 256 

. 256 

. 256 

. 260 



XXVI 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



THE NORTHERN PARTY . > 

Photo by F. Debenham. 

THE WESTERN GEOLOGICAL PARTY 

HOMEWARD BOUND— A SOOTY ALBATROSS 

MAP OF ROUTE TO THE SOUTH POLE . 



SLEDGING IN DEEP SNOW |.j ..... 

Photo by Captain Scott, 

CAMPING IN DEEP SNOW ON THE BEARDMORE GLACIER 
Photo by Captain Scott. 

CAMP ON THE BEARDMORE GLACIER . . 

Photo by Captain Scott. 

ON THE POLAR PLATEAU 

Photo by Lieutenant Bowers. 

LIEUTENANT EVANS SURVEYING WITH THE THEODOLITE USED BY 
CAPTAIN SCOTT TO LOCATE THE SOUTH POLE 



FACING PAGE 

. 264 

. 264 

. 267 

. 269 

. 273 



PETTY OFFICER CREAN ..... 
MECHANIC LASHLY 

CAPTAIN Amundsen's tent at the south pole 
CAPTAIN Scott's party at the south pole 

AT the south pole 

CAPTAIN OATES 

petty officer EVANS 

DR. WILSON . 

LIEUTENANT BOWERS 

CAPTAIN SCOTT 

THE leader's LAST WRITTEN WORDS 

THE LAST REST — ^THE GRAVE OF SCOTT, WILSON, AND BOWERS 

Photo by the Search Party. 

STATUE OF CAPTAIN SCOTT IN LONDON ,., 



273 

274 
274 

276 
276 
276 
279 
279 
280 
284 
284 
284 
284 
290 
293 
293 

296 



Enlargements, suitable for framing, may be obtained of many of the 
photographs reproduced in this book. Particulars will be sent 
on application to Messrs. Raines & Co., The Studios, Ealing, 
London, W. 



THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

CHAPTER I 
THE EXPEDITION LEAVES ENGLAND 

' Let us probe the silent places, let us seek what luck betide us ; 
Let us journey to a lonely land I know. 

There's a whisper on the night-wind, there's a star agleam to guide us, 
And the wild is calling, calling ... let us go.' 

Robert W. Service. 

Before going to the Far South with Captain Scott's South 
Pole Expedition, my life — save for six years' ranching and 
mining in Western America; a couple of voyages round the 
world; three years of travel in Japan; some months as war 
correspondent with the First Japanese Army during the 
war with Russia; and in the Philippines during the American 
war with Spain; and save, too, for several years of travel in 
a score of other lands — had been comparatively uneventful. 

I might almost say that I first met Captain Scott in Siberia. 
I may at least state that it was there that I first got to know 
him, for I occupied myself during a journey over the Trans- 
Siberian railway in January, 1907, by reading his recently 
published work ' The Voyage of the Discovery.' I had bought 
the two volumes in Tokyo, thinking that they might furnish 
appropriate reading for a journey in the frigid conditions of 
climate which prevail in Siberia at that time of the year; and 
during my two weeks' incarceration in the train, as it meandered 
over a third of the circumference of the globe, from 
Vladivostock to Moscow, I found that virile story of adventure 
of absorbing interest. Little then did I imagine that I should 
one day meet the great explorer in the flesh; much less that 
before four years had elapsed I should be accompanying him on 
J 



2 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

his second voyage to the Antarctic regions. Wonderful, 
indeed, are the ways of Fate in the framing of our destinies ! 

I was engaged in writing a book about my travels in Japan, 
at the time I met Captain Scott in real life in London, in 
November 1909. Up to that date nothing could possibly have 
been further from my thoughts than a voyage to such latitudes. 
Indeed, I was contemplating, and had almost entered into, 
arrangements for a project of a very different nature — a. two 
years' tour of the British Empire. 

But I was drawn strongly to the famous explorer on my first 
meeting with him. His trim, athletic figure; the determined 
face; the clear blue eyes, with their sincere, searching gaze; 
the simple, direct speech, and earnest manner; the quiet force 
of the man — all drew me to him irresistibly. During this, 
our first interview, he talked with such fervour of his forth- 
coming journey; of the lure of the southernmost seas; of 
the mystery of the Great Ice Barrier; of the grandeur of 
Erebus and the Western Mountains, and of the marvels of 
the animal life around the Pole, that I warmed to his 
enthusiasm. He told me of his plans for scientific research — 
for geology, zoology, biology, meteorology, physiography, and 
for photography. For more than twenty years I had been a 
keen enthusiast with the camera, and mine have been my 
inseparable companions in my wanderings over the earth, so 
when Scott finally stated that he considered photography was 
of such importance in exploration that it was his intention to 
make a special department of the art, and he asked if I would 
like to take charge of that part of the enterprise, though I 
asked for a day to think the matter over, I had already made 
up my mind that I would go if equitable arrangements could 
be made. 

The next day I told Captain Scott of the alternative plan 
which I had had under consideration. Just, and willing to 
look at all sides, as later I always found him to be, he expressed 
the opinion that, with such an interesting prospect before me, 
it might be foolish to abandon it in order to embark upon an 
adventure fraught with such risks as a Polar expedition. I 



MY FUTURE SHIPMATES 3 

explained that all my previous travels had been made in the 
interests of Geography ; that I felt that this was a chance, such 
as never would come to me again, to turn the experience that 
I had gained to some permanent benefit to Science, and 
that I was convinced that if I went, and were given a free 
hand to utilise my experience as I thought best, the photo- 
graphic results might prove not only of great educational 
value, but a valuable asset to the enterprise. He thanked me 
for taking this view; and then and there it was decided that 
I should throw in my lot with the Expedition. 

It seemed there were nearly ten thousand applications from 
adventurous spirits anxious to join the Expedition, the 
majority being from Army and Navy officers, many of whom 
were willing to sign on in any capacity — as stewards, grooms, 
or deck hands, rather than be left behind. Some of these 
enthusiasts were prepared to contribute sums as much as one 
thousand pounds, if accepted. But not one per cent, of the 
total applications could be considered ; I believe it gave Captain 
Scott real distress to be compelled to refuse so many of these 
fine fellows. 

As I met my future shipmates of the scientific staff, I 
found each to be keenly enthusiastic about his own particular 
part of the great work. It seemed that the corners of the 
Empire had been searched to find the right pegs to fit the 
proper holes. Thus, Dr. G. C. Simpson, of the Indian 
Weather Bureau, Simla, would have charge of the meteor- 
ological and magnetic work; Mr. C. S. Wright, a young 
Canadian physicist, had come from Toronto; Mr. Griffith 
Taylor, an Australian, was to be our chief geologist; and he 
and two other young geologists, Mr. F. Debenham and 
Mr. Raymond Priestley — the latter had been South before 
with Sir Ernest Shackleton — ^were to join us later in New 
Zealand. 

Dr. E. A. Wilson, the zoologist of the Expedition and Chief 
of the Scientific Staff, who was living in London, had been with 
Captain Scott in the Discovery. He reassured me, on my 
inquiring as to the difficulties of working with a camera in such 



4 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

low temperatures as he spoke of, by expressing the opinion 
that, with proper precautions and barring accidents, there is 
no reason why any ordinarily hardy man should not enjoy 
and benefit in health by a voyage to the Polar regions, though 
the mercury in the Antarctic sometimes falls one hundred 
degrees below what we should consider bitterly cold weather 
in England. 

I found that the Expedition was to have two biologists. 
Mr. D. G. Lillie, though quite a young man, was already a 
well-known authority on marine mammalia; and Mr. E. W. 
Nelson had been for some years at the Plymouth Laboratory. 
Surgeon E. L. Atkinson, R.N., was to specialise in parasitology. 
These completed the scientific staff of the Expedition; but 
Mr. Cherry-Garrard, a young friend of Dr. Wilson's — who, 
since leaving college, had been on a globe-trotting tour — was 
to assist the chief scientist in his zoological work. 

Mr. C. H. Meares, who was to have charge of the dogs, was 
already well-known to me. We had met in November, 1905, 
on a North German Lloyd steamer going from Yokohama to 
Shanghai, when I was on my way to India. Meares had 
already been there and, in addition to several other languages, 
could speak Hindustani. As he had been having a roughish 
time during the Russo-Japanese war, and needed a holiday, we 
had come to an arrangement by which he came along with 
me to act as interpreter, and for the following six months we 
had travelled together in Burma, India, and Ceylon. Meares 
had had a remarkably varied and adventurous life; and after 
parting with me in China he had added to his experiences by 
joining an expedition to the Tibetan frontier, on which the 
leader, Lieut. J. W. Brooke, lost his life. 

Early in January, 1910, Meares left London for Siberia, 
to secure the dogs and ponies for transport purposes. His 
intimate knowledge of the Russian language and of eastern 
Siberia was a great asset to Scott at that time. Meares knew 
exactly where to go, and how to set about things when he got 
there. He took the entire responsibility of securing all the 
transport animals upon his own shoulders, thus solving for 



PREPARING FOR THE SOUTH 5 

Scott what otherwise would have been a serious problem to 
find so well-qualified a substitute. Meares personally found, 
tried out and purchased the animals that were required — 
thirty dogs and nineteen ponies — ^and he shipped, accompanied 
and looked after them from Vladivostock to New Zealand, 
delivering all his charges safely at Lyttelton after what must 
have been to them a critical experience in passing through 
the Tropics. On the sea part of the journey he received the 
assistance of Lieut. Wilfred M. Bruce, R.N.R., the brother- 
in-law of Captain Scott, an officer of the Expedition ship 
Terra Nova. 

In January I began my preparations, and the following eight 
months were a busy and interesting time for me. I was 
determined that nothing should be left to chance, and that 
success should certainly not be jeopardised by any lack of 
foresight. It was largely due to the complete manner in 
which every possible need was provided for at the outset, that 
we were able to do our photographic work with comparative 
comfort in the South. 

Time, indeed, sped on all too quickly for me. The day for 
the sailing of the Terra Nova for New Zealand arrived at 
length; but weeks earlier it had been obvious that my 
preparations would not be completed in time for me to join 
the ship. I should have to follow by mail-steamer later. 

June 1st, the date of the departure of the Expedition from 
London, was also a memorable day in another respect for me. 
It was the day on which my book, * In Lotus-Land ' — a record 
of my travels in Japan, on which I had been working for the 
last six months — was published. Before leaving for the docks, 
I eagerly opened the parcel that had just arrived, and with no 
small pleasure contemplated the dozen volumes ; the handsome 
embossed covers of red and gold; the large, clear print and 
margins wide, and the hundred or more full-page plates, each 
a triumph of the printer's art, that nestled among the neat, 
clean pages of the text. The publishers had sumptuously 
produced the work, and they could not have chosen a more 
auspicious day on which to offer it to the world. 



6 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

The Terra Nova left the London Dock at noon, and, amidst 
the cheers of thousands on both sides of the river, steamed 
slowly down the Thames to the screaming of steamers' whistles 
and the wailing of ocean liners' sirens. Every craft on the 
river was ' dressed ' for the occasion, and each dipped her flag 
and gave loud blasts in salute as we glided by. The progress 
of the rugged whaler down the Thames was like a triumphal 
procession, 

I remarked to Captain Scott, as I stood near him on the 
poop: 'If this be your send-off, what will your home- 
coming be after discovering the South Pole ? ' He replied that 
he cared nothing for this sort of thing; that he would willingly 
forego all acclamation both now and later; that all he desired 
was to complete the work begun seven years ago, reach the 
goal of his hopes, and get back to his work in the Navy 
again. This reply was characteristic of the man. Ambitious, 
yet modest and unassuming, he was disdainful of the plaudits 
of the crowd, and show and ostentation were foreign to 
his nature. 

At Greenhithe the Terra Nova was welcomed by salvos 
of cheers from the Worcester boys, who manned the yards 
of the old Training-ship which had been alma mater to two 
of our officers — Lieut. E. R. Evans, the Second in Command, 
and Lieut. H. R. Bowers, the Commissariat Officer. Here 
Captain Scott, his wife and several friends and I disembarked 
and returned to London, the ship going on to Cardiff to fill 
her bunkers with some hundreds of tons of coal which had 
been generously presented to the Expedition. 

Captain Scott, and his wife — who would accompany him as 
far as New Zealand — ^left England in August, sailing by the 
Castle Line to Capetown. But it was mid-September before 
my preparations had been completed. I sailed by P. & O. 
liner to Australia, and thence to New Zealand, reaching 
Lyttelton three days before the rest of the Expedition — a month 
before we all finally sailed for the South. As soon as the 
Terra Nova arrived, unloading began without a day's delay, 
for numerous final additions had to be njade to our equipment 




CAPTAIN ROBERT FALCON SCOTT, R.N., C.V.O. 
On the bridge of the Terra Nova. 



NEW ZEALAND HOSPITALITY 7 

and stores; and it was necessary that the ship should go into 
dry-dock for a complete overhaul. She was then reloaded, 
every inch of space being tightly stowed, with due care that 
such gear and stores as would be needed first should be most 
readily accessible. It was as interesting as it was delightful 
to note that our Leader's wife spent many days checking 
packages as they were unloaded and then re-stowed. 

This work took more than three weeks to complete, and 
during that time hospitality of the most warm-hearted kind was 
extended to the members of the Expedition by the kind people 
of Christchurch and Lyttelton, and many lasting friendships 
were formed. Not all of us, however, were able to grasp 
as freely as we would have liked the hand of good fellowship 
that was so warmly offered. For my own part I had arranged 
to spend some time visiting and illustrating some of the famous 
sights of that lovely land — the volcanic geysers, the Tasman 
Glacier, Mount Cook, and the Maori region. But alas! all 
social festivities and pleasure travels were, for me, completely 
debarred when I found that some intricate apparatus which 
I had sent out by the Terra Nova had been badly damaged 
by sea- water leaking into the cases. Consequently, almost 
every hour of my stay in New Zealand was fully occupied, 
with the help of a clever mechanic, in putting these things 
right. Had we not been able to repair the damage my hopes 
would have been well nigh crushed at the outset, for I should 
not have been able to accomplish more than a small part of the 
work that I had planned. 

To Mr. J. J. Kinsey * the genial agent of the Expedition, 
and Mrs. Kinsey, I owe a debt of gratitude for some delightful 
hours spent at their beautiful country home, at Clifton; and 
for the assistance in my work which they so kindly gave me in 
placing their fine photographic laboratory at my disposal. 

Captain Scott often spoke to me of the great value that 
Mr. Kinsey's assistance had been to the Expedition, and of 
the vast amount of work that his friend had so generously 

* In 1918, the King conferred upon Mr. Kinsey the honour of 
knighthood in recognition of his great services to Antarctic exploration. 



8 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

taken off his own hands. To others of the kind people of 
warm-hearted New Zealand I feel none the less cordially 
because unable to avail myself of the hospitality they so freely 
offered. It is my earnest hope that some day I may return to 
accept it. 



CHAPTER II 

INTO THE 'FIFTIES' 

All preparations having been at last completed, and every 
nook and corner of her hold and deck space tightly packed 
with equipment, stores and coal, the Terra Nova left 
Lyttelton for Port Chalmers. That was the last point at 
which we should touch ere finally leaving for the Antarctic, 
and we had a chance to get things ship-shape for the rough 
seas that we might expect to encounter in the South Pacific. 
Everyone has read of the * Roaring Forties.' It is a term 
used by the skippers of the old ' wind jammers ' to designate 
the strong, steady winds that blow in the region that lies 
between 40° and 50° S. lat. New Zealand is in the * Forties ' : 
the fortieth parallel of latitude dissects the middle of the 
islands. Beyond the Roaring Forties there are the * Furious 
Fifties ' and the ' Shrieking Sixties,' for the storms become 
worse as one draws nearer to the South Pole. I do not know 
if the * Seventies ' have received any qualifying adjective; but 
the coldest word in the dictionary would certainly be appropriate 
— ^the ' Frigid Seventies,' if, indeed, the term be not used 
already. 

Save for the ships that round Cape Horn, there is no 
navigation — except by the whalers and explorers who venture 
into these stormy seas — south of 47° ; and no vessel has ever 
penetrated further south than the proximity of the seventy- 
eighth parallel of latitude. Beyond, is nothing but eternal ice 
and ice-clad mountains. 

The Terra Nova, which was to convey us into this boisterous 
region, was a three-masted, barque-rigged vessel of about sev^n 
hundred tons register, with auxiliary steam and screw. She 

9 



10 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

was an old Dundee whaler, whose keel had been laid some thirty 
years earlier, and had seen more Polar service than any other 
ship that ever sailed the seas. She had the right to fly the 
burgee of the Royal Yacht Squadron, of which Captain Scott 
had been elected a member; and she had the distinction of 
sailing under the white ensign, a privilege which, apart from 
the Navy, is enjoyed only by the units of the R.Y.S. 

She was a picturesque sight as she lay alongside the quay 
at Port Chalmers. Confidence in her staunchness and abihty 
for the tremendous task that lay ahead was bred in the 
knowledge of her years of fighting with the Polar ice, recorded 
in the log-books that formed the history of her gallant and 
honourable past; and imagination conjured up many a brave 
and thrilling fight with tempestuous seas of which her figure- 
head might tell, could those parted lips but speak. 

On the 29th of November, 1910, the Terra Nova steamed 
out of the harbour of Port Chalmers, New Zealand. The 
sun was shining brilliantly, and everything seemed to promise 
well for the success of our enterprise. Some thousands of 
friends came to the wharf to see us off, and to the waving 
of handkerchiefs, cheers, and shouts of * Good-bye ! ' and 
* Good luck ! ' we slipped out quietly into the bay. Two gaily- 
decorated excursion tugs, crowded with passengers, accom- 
panied us to The Heads, where we received the final farewells 
of our friends. Then our sturdy vessel proceeded on her 
lonely way, with her PlimsoU mark nearly a foot submerged. 

The deck of the Terra Nova amidships was completely 
covered with three great cases, each containing a motor-sledge, 
and a quantity of timber for building the headquarters hut, 
in which we should have to live during the winter season. 
Two of the motor-sledge cases and a baulk of timber and 
scantling were arranged so as to form a * corrall,' of which 
the ice-house made the fourth side. Except when heavy seas 
came aboard, this corrall constituted a sheltered home for a 
number of the dogs who were fortunate enough to be allotted 
to this desirable berth. In addition to this bulky material, 
which was securely lashed to the deck with ropes and chains, 



w 



\ 



OUR CROWDED DECK 11 

there were many tons of coal in bags, and numerous cases of 
petrol and paraffin oil. On top of this deck-hamper more dogs 
were berthed. There were thirty-three dogs in all — thirty of 
them Eastern Siberians, all males; two Eskimo dogs, given 
to the Expedition by Commander Robert Peary, the Arctic 
explorer (we christened them Peary and Cook), and a New 
Zealand collie bitch. Someone in England had presented 
Captain Scott with three English-bred Samoyedes; but these 
pretty exotics were quite unfitted for such arduous work as 
lay ahead — as Captain Scott knew from his experience of such 
dogs on the Discovery Expedition, and knew better still when 
he saw the rugged types that Meares had brought from 
Siberia. One of the Samoyedes died on the voyage to New 
Zealand ; the two others, and several puppies they had produced, 
were given away to friends in Christchurch. 

Just for'ard of the motor-sledges was the ice-house, in which 
a hundred carcases of frozen mutton and several carcases of 
beef were stored. The top of this ice-house formed a platform 
to which two invaluable instruments were fixed — the standard 
compass and the range-finder. This platform was surrounded 
by a brass rail, to which ten dogs were chained. Adjoining 
the ice-house and for'ard of it, were stalls for four of the 
ponies ; fifteen additional ponies were berthed in the forecastle. 
The ponies were sturdy, picturesque creatures. White, 
shaggy and unkempt of coat and mane, these rugged little 
fellows seemed veritable symbols of the wild regions from 
which they had come, and of the eternal snows at the antipodes 
of the earth to which they were now going — whence they were 
predestined never to return. The ponies had been handed over 
by Mr. Meares — whose time was now fully occupied in caring 
for the dogs — to Captain Oates, in New Zealand; and, like 
the dogs, they were doomed to have a miserable time of it 
during the next few days. As soon as we cleared The Heads 
a fresh breeze sprang up, causing the spray, from the waves 
which broke against the weather side of the ship, to drench 
the dogs, who curled up and lay shivering and dejected, each 
chained to his allotted berth. It was impossible to find for 



12 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

them any protection from the wet, which it was obvious they 
disliked exceedingly, however disdainful they might be of 
cold. But their hardy nature fitted them to endure this dis- 
comfort without any ill effect; and, knowing what frigid 
conditions of weather these robust animals could stand, 
we realised that this experience on the ship, though un- 
pleasant enough, was to them no great hardship. 

I found that life on a whaler was a very different matter to 
travelling on comfortable ocean liners. The Terra Nova 
seemed to me not only to know and practise every movement 
known to every ship in which I had previously sailed; but 
frequently to vary these with movements of her own, which 
I felt convinced that no other respectable ship knew anything 
whatever about. I found it almost impossible to sleep below 
deck in the narrow, stuffy cabins, crowded with our personal 
belongings. Moreover, for the first few days I was very seasick, 
in common with others of my landsman shipmates who had 
joined the ship at New Zealand. I therefore removed my 
bedding to the floor of my photographic laboratory on the poop. 

This laboratory was a place to which I had given a great deal 
of thought and care, and had personally planned and supervised 
the building of it when the Terra Nova lay at the London 
docks. It formed one of three compartments in a substantial 
deck-house that had been erected on the port. side of the 
forward part of the poop. It was 6 feet long, 4^4 feet wide, 
and 8 feet high. A lead-covered bench, 18 inches wide, ran 
the length of the apartment, in the middle of which was a deep 
lead-lined sink; on each side of the sink there were cupboards 
under the bench. Water was laid on from an iron tank fixed 
under the roof, which was filled periodically until all such 
arrangements were finally rendered ineffective by the frost. 
There was a ruby-glass scuttle, or port-hole, over the sink; 
and a window — protected by shutters and iron bars — which 
could easily be darkened, looked out astern. Three tiers of 
shelves ran round three sides of the room, with guard-rails 
to prevent anything from falling off, and on these and in the 
cupboards I was able to store an incredible quantity of gear; 



L 



'UNCLE BILL' 13 

all plates, films, etc., being in hermetically-sealed tin cases. 
It was the three feet of free floor space of this apartment that 
I now used as a bunk. 

Cape pigeons, mollymawks, petrels and other seafowl 
circled about the ship. The proud, majestic albatrosses, 
some of which must have measured ten feet from tip to tip, 
soared like aeroplanes about our wake, scarcely ever troubling 
to flap their wings, but simply setting them against the breeze. 
When, however, any scraps were thrown overboard from the 
galley, elegance went to the winds, and there ensued a noisy 
and undignified squabble for the prizes. 

' Uncle Bill ' — as our zoologist, Dr. Wilson, was called by 
all — seemed to know the name of every bird that winged the 
waves. I never sought from him the name of any creature in 
vain. Thus, at the outset of our voyage I found how 
exhaustive was his knowledge of Antarctic fauna. It gave 
me no small satisfaction to know that, whilst my own ambition 
was to produce a pictorial record of our adventure — which 
might enlighten those who do not read expensive volumes 
on exploration, as to the objects, results and value of such 
an enterprise as ours — Dr. Wilson was a man who was capable 
of investing any zoological photographs with such information 
as would render them of mxaximum value to science. The 
estimate that I then formed of him strengthened as time went 
on, and each day added to my regard for this splendid man. 
Interrogating Uncle Bill as to the names of birds reminded me 
of the following incident, which I related to him. 

A few years before, when I was travelling on a Pacific Ocean 
liner, and the ship was about half-way between Honolulu and 
Japan — many hundreds of miles from land — I observed a 
number of birds, such as I had not previously seen, flying 
over the surface of the sea. Just then the quartermaster of 
the ship came along, and I asked him : * Quartermaster, can 
you tell me the name of those birds ? ' The old Irishman 
shaded his shaggy brows with his palm for a few seconds, 
closely scrutinising the birds ; then he replied : ' Why, yess, 
sorr. Them's what we call " seaburrds," sorr ! ' and he went 






14 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

about his work, with the air of one possessing superior know- 
ledge, leaving me wondering if he thought that I had taken 
them for a covey of partridges, or barnyard fowls. 

On the third day out from New Zealand I had the ill-luck, 
whilst endeavouring to make my way for'ard in a rather 
wobbly and unseamanlike manner, to stagger as the ship rolled, 
nearly precipitating my finest hand-camera overboard. I saved 
it by a hair's breadth; but, in the effort, I slipped and fell 
amongst the heavy timbers amidships, nearly breaking my left 
leg. I made my way back to my laboratory in a good deal of 
pain, and found that, though fortunately my sea-boots and 
thick corduroy breeches had saved the skin from breaking, 
there was a bruise five inches in length on my shin, just beside 
a permanent scar that I bear from an encounter with a skidding 
London motor-'bus, in which the honours were with my 
adversary — the 'bus sustaining no damage. I anointed the 
injured part with vaseline, and bound it up with a handkerchief. 

That evening, as I was again trying to discipline my unruly 
underpinning on the poop, which was now rising and falling 
in a most dizzy and disconcerting manner — in the desire to 
photograph a beautiful scene of the sun setting behind the 
clouds, through openings in which shafts of light radiated to 
gild the leaden waves — the Bo'sun came along to ' pass the time 
o' day.' A happy genial son of the sea was Mr. Cheetham 
— known to his shipmates of the forecastle when off duty by 
his Christian name of * Alf ' — a hale and hearty soul, whose 
contented spirit was indexed in the smile that almost 
perpetually illumined his rubicund features. The wind was 
rising rapidly, and he did not tarry long. As he parted from 
me, he cocked his eye up into the westward heavens, and, 
murmuring something, which was lost in the breeze, about 
* in for dirty weather,' went off to give some orders to the 
deck-hands. 

A true prophet was our Bo'sun. He had read the signs 
aright. The high sea at present running was already giving 
some of us, and the animals, trouble enough; but it was a 
peaceful mill-pond in comparison with what we were to 



THE TERRA NOVA IN A GALE 15 

experience in the ensuing forty-eight hours. Soon after the 
red sun sank into the heaving waters it was blowing 
great guns from the west; and ere night fell on the sea, 
a full gale was howling and shrieking through the rigging, 
and tearing and roaring over the now mountainous waves. 
The ship rolled and plunged and squirmed as she wallowed 
in the tremendous seas which boomed and crashed all 
that night against the weather side, sending tons of water 
aboard every moment. Screaming gusts would strike her 
with hurricane force, and sometimes she would lay over to an 
angle of 40° — nearly half a right angle from an even keel — 
as I could tell from the arc described by a thermometer hanging 
on my laboratory wall, which was normally perpendicular. 
Yet so stoutly was the grand old vessel built that her massive 
timbers never uttered a squeak. Often the waves swept over 
the stern, almost carrying the helmsman off his feet, and he 
was frequently knee-high, and sometimes waist deep in water. 
This was the only part of the ship to which I could occasionally 
venture during the storm; for though I had looked forward 
with some anticipation to experiencing a gale in these seas, 
yet when the chance occurred I. was quite unable to get on to 
the' bridge to witness the grandeur of the storm, as I could not 
risk further injury to my leg. 

Moreover, I had my work cut out to save my photographic 
gear from ruin. Each time a heavy sea came aboard, a stream of 
water spurted through the chinks of the door, which fitted badly ; 
and this was added to by the water that periodically dribbled 
through the mushroom ventilator in the roof, so that the floor 
quickly became awash. All my valuable and indispensable ap- 
paratus was kept either on the shelves, or hung by hooks to the 
roof; but the cupboards were crammed with various stores, 
which I had hurriedly to re-stow as soon as the ship began to heel 
over, leaving the lower compartments empty. The sill of the 
door was a foot high, and my ' lab ' was on the lee side. As 
the list became heavier, but for almost ceaseless baling from 
the floor to the sink, day and night, the water would have been 
nearly a yard deep in the cupboards. I had taken all possible 



16 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

care to make things fast and shipshape before leaving port; 
thanks to this precaution, and to the fact that all perishable 
supplies had been stored in hermetically-sealed cases, little 
damage was sustained. 

During the storm I was so hard put to it to save my own 
belongings, that not until the danger was past did I learn 
the full tale of all that had happened during the two days 
the ship had been hove-to. The tons of water that broke 
inboard amidships could not, owing to the crowded state of 
the decks, find the scuppers quickly enough — the scuppers in 
any case being quite incapable of dealing with such volumes 
of it — ^and for a great part of the time the lee rail had been 
submerged. As the ship rolled and the water rushed from 
side to side, it carried with it cases of petrol and bags of 
coal which, battering into the bulwarks, loosened up the planks ; 
and one tremendous sea, coming inboard on the port side, 
carried the whole of these planks away from the forecastle to 
the poop — so that there was now nothing to keep the seas 
from washing the waist of the ship from the lee side. There 
was then the grave danger of the deck opening up if the 
motor-sledges got loose as well, in which case we must 
inevitably have foundered. The seamen risked life and limb 
to get hold of the loose sacks and petrol cases — which bom- 
barded them as they worked — ^to throw them overboard before 
a worse thing happened. 

In the height of all this trouble, confusion became worse 
confounded by the choking of the pumps by the coal dust 
that had found its way into the suction-pipe in the bilge — 
which was now several feet deep with water. The pumps 
refused to work, and the water gradually rose until the 
stoke-hold was awash. Imminent danger now threatening the 
boilers, the engine room staff, assisted by the deck hands, the 
officers and several of the scientific staff, worked in two-hour 
shifts of ten men, night and day, * baling out ' in a hand-to- 
hand bucket-chain up the engine-room ladder. During this 
time mechanic Lashly worked up to his neck in the filthy 
rushing water, trying to clear the suction-pipe of the pump; 




THE • TERRA NOVA ' IN A GALE. 



i6] 



# 



THE TOLL OF THE GALE 17 

but as the rising water now came in contact with the bottom 
of the big Scotch boiler, it became too hot for him to 
work there longer, and he had to abandon the effort. The 
fires had previously been drawn to enable the boiler to cool; 
for should the rising water reach the hot plates above 
the fire-box, there was the danger of their cracking and 
destroying the boiler, thus permanently putting the engine — 
on which we were dependent for forcing our way through 
the pack-ice — out of action. 

In Lashly and Chief Engineer Williams, we had two 
splendid, efficient men, of whom no praise could be too great 
for the resource they displayed in these hours of peril. 
From the way the ship was making water, which was now 
dripping through several loosened planks in the deck, 
everything depended on the freeing of the suction-pipe of the 
pump. As a last expedient, they set to work, in the sweltering 
heat, to cut through the steel bulkhead between the boiler and 
the hand-pump shaft, so as to gain access to the bottom of 
the pipe. Before midnight they had accomplished this 
difficult task, and Lieut. Evans crept through the opening, 
reached the pump shaft, and, working up to his neck in water, 
managed to clear away the coal debris that had choked the 
pipe. Providentially, too, the gale began to abate about this 
time; and when, regardless of the incoming seas, sixteen pairs 
of willing arms manned the long cranks amidships, and a thick 
stream of inky fluid at last gushed from the spout and found 
the scuppers, loud shouts of joy arose above the tumult of the 
storm, proclaiming to all aboard that the hand-pump was 
once more free. 

As the water in the engine-room slowly fell to the efforts of 
these Spartans working in frequent shifts, the fires were re- 
lighted, and ere morning the steam-pump relieved them of 
this arduous labour. 

By sheer resource, competence and superb seamanship the 
peril had been met, fought and averted; but the storm had 
levied a heavy tribute on our assets. We lost ten tons of pre- 
cious coal, and scores of cases of petrol. Two ponies had died, 
2 



18 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

and a third never really recovered from the weakened condition 
in which the severe buffeting had left him. Two dogs had 
been lost — one drowned and the other strangled by his chain. 
Another dog, Osman, who was washed overboard, was 
miraculously washed back on to the ship again on the crest of 
the next wave. He was grabbed by one of the sailors as he 
was again about to be carried into the sea, and saved. Though 
in a state of collapse for several days, he completely recovered, 
and lived to be the best dog of all, and the leader of the pack. 
Osman served with honours throughout the Expedition, and 
was comfortably pensioned and quartered for the rest of his 
life with friends in New Zealand. 

During the storm no one on board had experienced a harder 
or more dangerous time than Meares and his kennel-man, 
Dimitri; repeatedly they had to risk the breaking seas that 
came aboard, in order to rescue their charges from drowning 
or strangulation. Captain Oates and Surgeon Atkinson had 
had an equally arduous task in caring for the ponies. 

The storm was described in the log of the Terra Nova as 
of ' Force 10,' which is within two units of the maximum, a 
hurricane. I do not suppose that any of my shipmates would 
care to repeat their experience of weathering a gale in a 
heavily overladen ship in the Fifties. Certainly I should not. 
It was rather too close a call for all of us, as our tortured 
barque wallowed amongst the hills and valleys of that wildest 
of all the wildernesses of the deep, and the worst two days that 
any of our number had ever spent at sea. 



CHAPTER III 
THE TERRA NOVA ENTERS THE PACK-ICE 

Though the gale had now blown itself out, the ship was still 
rolling a great deal in a heavy swell that followed in the 
wake of the storm. The Fifties had done themselves proudly, 
so far, and had nobly maintained their furious reputation. 
Having shown us what they could do, I hoped they would 
rest content at that, and give us a sporting chance to get 
on with our work. 

These gales are known as the ' Westerlies,' and we could 
not expect to be out of the region of their prevalence until 
well over the sixtieth parallel of latitude. We were now 
about 55° S. The map of the world — Mercator's Projection 
is best for the purpose — shows that in the Eastern Hemisphere, 
below the southernmost point of New Zealand, there is no 
other land until the Antarctic continent is reached, about 65° 
to 70° S. Barring the extreme south part of South America, 
the narrow peninsula of Graham's Land, and a number of 
small islands — only two or three of which off Cape Horn 
and New Zealand are inhabited — there is open ocean all round 
the world for some twenty degrees of latitude, a swath of 
the globe's surface about twelve hundred geographical miles 
in width. Thus, there is nothing to break the force of the 
tremendous seas heaped up by the fierce tempests that ravage 
this region, which sweep round the world, gathering in 
violence as they go. That is why the waves encountered in 
these latitudes are more mountainous than are met with in 
any other ocean. 

It is part of the work of scientific enterprises such as 
Polar expeditions to obtain data about storms; hence in 

19 



20 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

Dr. Geo. C. Simpson we had a meteorological expert who was 
equipped with every needful appliance for research into 
atmospheric disturbances. The results of his observations 
will not only be of great value to science, but to navigation, 
and thus indirectly to agriculture and industry; and to 
everyone who is affected by navigation. This means everyone 
in the British Isles, and in most other lands as well, for it is 
by navigation that we receive the greater part of our food 
supplies and the raw materials for our industries from overseas. 
A great part of the world is affected, in some way or other, by 
the tempests that are born in the region surrounding the South 
Pole — the stormiest zone on earth. The nearer to their source 
these storms can be examined, the more valuable are the results 
attained; and as this was but one of the scientific objects of 
our enterprise, a Polar expedition, planned and led for such 
purposes as this, was not a mere * dash ' to locate a point on 
the earth's surface on which the foot of man had never 
trodden, but was a great scientific undertaking, from the results 
of which mankind might derive direct and permanent benefits. 
If this were better and more widely understood, we should 
less often hear the question asked * What is the good of it all? ' 
and those who give their lives to such a cause would not only 
be immortalised by Science, but in the hearts of all their 
countrymen. 

On looking at my injured leg, which had not been undressed 
for several days and was still quite painful, I discovered that 
there was now a black contusion under the skin from the knee 
to the ankle. Not liking the look of this, I called Dr. Levick, 
the ship's surgeon, who brought along Dr. Wilson, and the 
two medicos decided that I must go below immediately for 
complete rest. For the next few days, therefore, I was com- 
pelled to lie low, and give the blood-clot a chance to be 
absorbed. 

This enforced idleness was very galling, as I could hear 
the seabirds, that hovered and circled about the ship's wake, 
squealing as they fought for the refuse thrown overboard 
from the galley, and I imagined all sorts of camera-subjects 




SOME OF THE CREW OF THE 'TERRA NOVA.' 




OFFICERS AND SCIENTISTS IN THE WARDROOM. 



[21 



THE WARD-ROOM 21 

that I might be missing. A friend in New Zealand had 
given me Marcus Clarke's 'For the Term of His Natural 
Life '—a most blood-curdling tale of the days of transportation 
to Botany Bay for comparatively trivial offences, and often on 
account of the most deplorable miscarriage of justice — which 
I read through, but was glad to reach the end of so depressing 
though enthralling a story. I then commenced to read F. T. 
Bullen's ' Cruise of the Cachalot/ one of the most stirring 
books of adventure ever written, every chapter of which was 
filled with information concerning the very creatures that 
the old ship, in which I now found myself, had been engaged 
in hunting during a great part of her career — whales. The 
Cachalot is better known by its English name. Sperm whale, 
and although we were now south of the haunts of these 
great sea mammals — which frequent warmer waters — we were 
soon to meet with other members of the numerous whale 
family, concerning which there is a mine of information in 
that fascinating volume. 

Now that I was perforce an unwilling prisoner, I may as 
well give a few details of the ship's arrangements below decks. 
The ' ward-room ' was a fairly spacious apartment, with 
walls painted white, on which hung signed portraits of King 
Edward VII and Queen Alexandra. This room was lit by 
a skylight from above, and it had a fireplace at one end. 
It had a long table down the centre with benches at each side, 
at which the afterguard (the officers and staff) messed. On 
three sides of the ward-room were cabins containing sleeping 
bunks; the door shown in the photograph (between the Royal 
portraits) being that of the cabin occupied by Captain Scott 
and Dr. Wilson, and the two doors in the background being the 
pantry on the left, and the companion-way to the deck on 
the right. Below the ward-room were the chronometer-room 
and the ship's lazarette. 

All idea of the comfortable cabins of ocean liners must be 
dispelled in conjuring up a vision of our sleeping-quarters. 
They were narrow, sepulchral chambers, into each of which 
a feeble glimmer of light penetrated by way of a tunnel, about 



22 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

fourteen inches long, pierced in the massive timbers of which 
the ship's hull was built, at the outer end of which was a 
scuttle, six inches in diameter, of thick glass. Into these cabins 
as many bunks and as much luggage as possible had been 
crammed. Each bunk had a high outer side to keep its 
occupant from falling out in rough weather. In my cabin 
there were four bunks and the kit of the four occupants. 
Each tenant's kit was in a canvas bag; and his sea-boots, felt- 
boots, overcoats and wraps hung in the meagre corner space, 
or lay about the floor; so that one had to struggle amongst a 
pile of other people's belongings to find one's own. In the 
dungeon-like gloom this was anything but an easy matter, and 
usually the searcher came in for a good deal of banter from 
the onlookers; though the humorous aspect of the situation 
was not always so obvious to the seeker, especially when the 
ship was balanced on her beam ends. Over the ward-room a 
large deckhouse had been built, which replaced what had 
formerly been a skylight-hatch in the deck, and the present 
skylight was in the roof of the new addition. This deck- 
house was two feet wider than the original deck opening, the 
difference in width now forming a balcony where wet oilskins 
could be removed and hung up before descending to the ward- 
room — which, with its cheery fire, was a snug and welcome 
retreat in bad weather. 

Into this room each morning, at 7.30, would come the 
steward, calling out ' Rise and shine, gentlemen ! Rise and 
shine, gentlemen ! Rise and shine ! ' This invocation to turn 
out of our bunks and wash, for such it was — an importation 
from the midshipmen's quarters of the Navy — usually caused 
never so much as a stir. It was received with unbroken 
silence, or perhaps a snore or two. The steward would then 
reappear ten minutes later, with ' Show a leg, gentlemen ! 
Show a leg, gentlemen ! Show a leg ! ' This would draw a 
few yawns and grunts, and again — silence. The steward's 
third visit was from cabin to cabin, and in stentorian tones he 
would exclaim, 'Show a leg, gentlemen! Show a leg, 
gentlemen ! ! SHOW A LEG ! ! ! ' and we knew that the three 



ABOUT CHANTIES 23 

calls of grace were up. Etiquette demanded that we should 
tax the steward's patience no longer, and out we turned. But 
for a few days my leg wasn't fit to show anyone but the doctor, 
so the steward passed me by in peace. 

After a sea- water sponge-down on the poop deck, by the 
more stoical, or a hand-basin wash below by the less hardened, 
a hearty breakfast of unlimited porridge, bacon, bread, butter 
and marmalade and jam served to fortify our tissues until 
lunch time. 

In one cabin — much larger than any of the others, and con- 
taining six bunks, which was called the ' nursery ' — there was 
a player-piano. Musical talent was not, however, the forte of 
the afterguard; but two or three could vamp and play the 
banjo and the mandolin a bit, and Lieut. Rennick was handy 
with the flute. Still, the piano was a boon to all, as beside 
it stood a cabinet containing an excellent assortment of rolls 
of music. There was also, of course, a gramophone. 

After three days' rest, there was such a remarkable improve- 
ment in my leg that I was able to go on deck once more. I 
was glad to be out in the sweet, fresh air again, and to get 
some exercise. The weather was dull and the sea very rough 
and lumpy still; but I was now able to get about and 
take some interest in the working of the ship. It was fine 
to see the sailors furling the sails out on the yard-arms, the 
ends of which at times seemed almost to dip into the sea, as 
the ship heeled over in the great rolling waves. It was fine, 
too, to listen to the chanties that they sang — rough as most 
of their voices were. The words were set to simple, harmonious 
airs, and the chorus of each chanty had a stirring rhythm; onf 
just had to join in the irresistible swing of the thing. 

When hoisting the mainsail or the topsail, which is hard 
work, as the yards are very heavy, it is usual to haul during 
the chorus only, so the leader stood on the poop and sang the 
verses ; then all pulled together with all the weight and strength 
they could muster. The chorus of one of these chanties, 
following on verses of a fine rolling old song of the sea, ran 
as follows : 



24 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

' So we'll rant and we'll roar, like true British sailors. 
We'll rant and we'll roar across the blue sea ; 
Until we strike soundings in the channel of old England, 
From Ushant to Scilly is forty-nine leagues.' 

And they did rant and roar too — ^as they straightened out their 
knees and their backs, putting all their weight and sinew into 
the work, making the tackle rattle through the blocks as they 
bellowed out each accented word — these true British sailors. 

Another chanty, with a shorter metre and a chorus to every 
line, concerned the adventures of an American youth who 
was known to his shipmates by the name of * Ranzo.' It 
went like this : 

Solo. Oh, Ranzo was no sailor. 

Chorus. Ranzo, boys, Ranzo. 

Solo. The son of a New York tailor. 

Chorus. Ranzo, boys, Ranzo. 

And so on for twenty stanzas, or more : ' sailor ' and ' tailor ' 
and the end of every line of the lead being sustained for two 
or three bars. As the ballad progressed the story told how 
the hero grew more and more efficient until finally he became 
the captain of the ship. When hoisting the topgallant sail 
to this chanty, the hauling was done only as the name of the 
hero was pronounced. It had a good snappy tune, and always 
went with gusto. 

Another fine song, with a beautiful swinging air, was 
' A-Roving.' Here is the first verse : 

Solo. Her eyes are like two stars so bright, 

Mark you well what I do say! 
Her eyes are like two stars so bright, 
Her face is fair, her step is light, 
I'll go no more a-roving from you, fair maid. 

Chorus. A-roving, a-roving, since roving's been my ruin, 

I'll go no more a-roving from you, fair maid. 

A favourite chanty, when manning the pumps, was * Sally 
Brown,' which was a song of praise of the charms of a young 
lady of that name who supplanted her own mother in the 




^ 


B^ 




1 







THE HELMSMAN AT THE WHEEL. THE BO'SUN WITH AN ICE ANCHOR. 




LIEUT. BRUCE LEADING A CHANTY. MR. WILLLAMS, CHIEF ENGINEER. 



L„ 



ABOUT CHANTIES 25 

affections of the singer; it is to be hoped that she merited 
the sums that would appear to have been lavished upon her. 
This is probably the most popular of all the songs which sailors 
sing, and here are a few of its verses : 

Solo. So I courted Sal, her only daughter. 
Chorus. Aye, aye, roll and go. 

Solo. For her I sail upon the water, 
Chorus. Spend my money on Sally Brown. 

Solo. Sally's teeth are white and pearly. 

Chorus. Aye, aye, roll and go. 

Solo. Her eyes are blue, her hair is curly, 

Chorus. Spend my money on Sally Brown. 

Solo. The sweetest flower in the valley, 

Chorus. Aye, aye, roll and go. 

Solo. Is my dear girl, my pretty Sally, 

Chorus. Spend my money on Sally Brown. 

Solo. Oh ! Sally L own, I had to leave you. 

Chorus. Aye, aye, roll and go. 

Solo. But trust me that I'll not deceive you. 

Chorus. Spend my money on Sally Brown. 

Sailors dearly love these old songs of the sea, as well they 
might, for, when sung under such circumstances as the present, 
there was a simple grandeur of melody about them that was 
really stirring. They are only known by the seamen of 
merchant sailing-vessels, as there is no occasion for their use 
in steamships. (The Terra Nova had auxiliary steam.) The 
chanties were usually led by Mr. Cheetham, the Bo'sun, but 
Lieut. Bruce sometimes would take the lead; there seemed 
to be no song ever written that this genial sailor did not know. 

One day Captain Scott came to my ' lab ' to have a yarn about 
plans for the summer's work. He told me that as soon as 
we had landed all the stores and equipment, and had built the 
winter-quarters hut, a main party would proceed southwards 
to lay depots of supplies for the use of the Polar Party on 
their journey next year. A party of six would proceed to 
King Edward VII Land; another party of five would explore 
South Victoria Land for a few weeks. It was his wish 



26 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

that as I was ' the oldest and most experienced traveller,' and 
had done a good deal of Alpine work, I should accompany, 
and have charge of this party. I was much pleased at this 
expression of confidence, and thanked him warmly; but, as 
will be seen later, these plans were changed. Other and more 
important work lay ahead of me, and I did not accompany the 
party. 

On going to the forepart of the ship, to which I had not 
ventured since injuring my leg, I realised what a dreadful 
experience the gale must have been to the ponies berthed in the 
forecastle. It was there, of course, that the motion of the 
ship was felt more than anywhere else; and there two of the 
unhappy creatures had ended their earthly sorrows, whilst a 
third who had nearly joined them was a pitiful-looking object. 

The sailors, too, hardened seamen as they were, had suffered 
great discomfort, and were endeavouring to dry their personal 
belongings, which had been drenched by the water that invaded 
their quarters from the waves coming aboard. These fine 
fellows were meeting their troubles now, as always, with 
jokes and songs. 

In the vocabulary of the forecastle (usually clipped short 
in nautical parlance to ' fo'c'sle') I detected a strong affinity 
to the vernacular of the American gold-miners and cowboys, 
with which, in my ' Out West ' days, my ears had not been 
unfamiliar. It was like the voice of an old friend. The 
fluency with which one of our Petty Officers addressed his ship- 
mates in times of stress commanded admiration; for though 
he seldom repeated himself, and his diatribes were full of biting 
satire, there was not a trace of venom in a word of them. 

I noticed that some carcases of mutton had been removed 
from the ice-house, and were now, wrapped in cheesecloth, 
hanging for airing in the mizzen shrouds — * shrouds ' being 
the nautical name for the hemp-covered wire ropes extending 
from the sides of the ship to the masthead, to stay the mast. It 
was reported that one of the ' tenderfoot ' scientists had 
enquired of Petty Officer Evans as to why these ropes were 
called * shrouds.' Evans, always quick-witted, and never at a 



LAGYNORYNCHUS OBSCURTIS 27 

loss to get a * rise ' out of anyone, replied ' Why, because we 
keep them wrapped-up carcases hangin' to them, sir ! ' It was 
also reported that the tenderfoot had appeared quite satisfied 
with this explanation! 

Dr. Wilson, who was always on the watch for ' specimens,' 
now began to set snares from the mizzen rigging, consisting of 
a hundred feet or so of strong, but very fine fishing-line, at 
the end of which there was a loop. These lines streamed out 
astern, pennant-like in the wind. Soon, one of the pretty, 
unsuspecting Antarctic petrels that circled over our wake 
became entangled, and was hauled aboard to be skinned for 
our zoological collection. Our voyage was not, however, at 
any time remarkable for the numbers of the seabirds that we 
met with. I had expected to see ten times as many. 

We were now in waters where various members of the 
great Cetacean family, both large and small, might at any 
time be mot with, from the gigantic Sibbald's Rorqual, or 
Blue whale — mightiest of all mammals — ^to some of the 
smallest dolphins. Dennis Lillie, the ship's biologist, who was 
very clever with his pencil, therefore pinned up in the chart- 
room a card on which he had drawn diagrams of a number 
of whales, porpoises and dolphins; and under each of these 
sketches he had written their Latin names, so that all, who felt 
so disposed, might learn to identify any individuals they might 
see. I had started to study these, and had just mastered the 
first diagram of a creature described as Lagynorynchus 
ohscurus, when I noticed some porpoises or dolphins alongside 
the ship. Without thinking of the diagrams, or of trying to 
identify them, and full of my newly-acquired knowledge, I 
shouted to Lillie, who was below, that there were some 
Lagynorynchus obscurus alongside. He dashed excitedly on 
deck, and jotted down some notes about the creatures as he 
watched them. Then he turned to me, and asked how I had 
identified them. Descrying from his manner that I had made 
a lucky shot, I resolved to dissemble, and replied that they had 
been easily recognisable from his excellent portraits. This 
greatly pleased Lillie; he told me I had missed my proper 



28 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

metier and ought to have been a biologist. I never confessed 
to him that it was a mere guess, and though I did not make 
much more progress with the Latin names, I shall never forget 
Lagynorynchus ohscurus. 

Ten days after leaving New Zealand, we felt the breath 
of frozen seas. There had been several false alarms the 
previous day, but there was no doubt about it this time. Early 
in the morning the cry came from the lookout in the * crow's 
nest ' that there was ' A large iceberg ahead, sir ! ' No one 
taxed the steward's patience that morning. He had no sooner 
added to his usual exhortation to us to * Rise and shine ! ' the 
information that there was an iceberg and ' pack ' ahead, than 
we all turned out o£ our blankets quickly enough for once — 
eager to make our first acquaintance with the ice. Hastily 
dressing, I went on deck, and saw a gleaming white, floating 
island near the horizon. The sun, already high in the heavens, 
for we were in latitude 65° S., bathed it with light, 
causing it to stand out in vivid contrast to the cobalt ocean and 
the sombre gloom of the distance. As I gazed at the wonderful 
and, to me, novel sight, I felt that we were at last really at 
the threshold of that Great White South — whence Providence 
alone knew how many of our number would return. 

But there was little time for reveries or soliloquising, for 
we were rapidly approaching the berg; so, after a hasty 
breakfast, I hurried to get my cameras ready for a subject such 
as only those who venture into these southern latitudes ever 
behold — Arctic icebergs seldom being more than a fraction of 
the size of the colossal masses which every season break away 
and float northward from the Ross and other ice barriers, until 
the heavy seas and warmer water that they encounter break 
them up and reduce them to the element from which they sprang. 

In all my travels I had seen nothing so magnificent as this 
stupendous work of Nature. The grandest and most beautiful 
monuments raised by human hands had not inspired me with 
such a feeling of awe as I experienced on meeting with this 
first Antarctic iceberg. It was flat as a table; about eighty 
feet in height, and a mile or more long. Its vertical cliffs were 




AN ANTARCTIC TABULAR ICEBERG. 




THE 'TERRA NOVA' ENTERING THE PACK-ICE. 



THE TERRA NOVA ENTERS THE 'PACK' 29 

seamed with fissures, and near the water line the great mass 
was pitted with caverns into which the waves rushed and 
foamed, or, dashing against the cHffs, rose with a roar, far 
up the perpendicular precipices. 

When we steamed as close as safety permitted, to enable me 
to take some photographs, from our maintop we could discern 
a long ice-foot that projected like a warship's ram from the 
submarine part of the berg. It is estimated that only about 
a sixth or eighth part of these great tabular bergs appears 
above water, so there was probably five or six hundred feet 
of ice below the surface. I thought it curious that it should 
have a ram below the water. One would naturally suppose 
that the action of the ocean currents would erode the ice more 
quickly under water than the wind and sun would weather it 
above; and that bergs would be more likely to exhibit an 
overhang above water, rather than any projection below. But 
this was by no means usually the case, even in bergs that bore 
evidence of having but recently parted from their source of 
origin. (Yet, when later we arrived off the Great Ice Barrier 
itself, we found, not that a submarine icefoot projected there- 
from, but that it was deeply undercut by the action of the 
waves. ) 

Icebergs were an almost hourly sight henceforward, and 
the next to follow this vanguard of the fleet was shaped like 
the hull of a battleship, with a ram above water ; but it had a 
greater ram submerged as well. 

A line of ice now loomed on the surface of the sea, near 
the horizon, and soon after passing these first bergs we were 
in the * pack.' It was hard luck to encounter the pack-ice 
thus early in the voyage; Captain Scott had anticipated 
reaching a full degree further south before entering the ice. 
We hoped this might be only some outlying fringe of floes, 
and that the main body of the pack might be some distance 
ahead. Such hopes were doomed to disappointment, however, 
for during the next three weeks the Terra Nova had to fight 
her way yard by yard through the heaviest ice-floes ever 
encountered by any exploring vessel in these regions. The 



30 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

pack extended, as it proved, with occasional breaks, for some 
six degrees of latitude, or about four hundred statute miles. 
The weather had become dull and the heavens lifeless soon 
after the ship entered the ice; but the skies cleared in the 
evening, and when the sun burst forth the scene became of 
almost indescribable beauty. Innumerable ice-floes, with 
edges upturned from constant contact with each other, lay 
upon the now unruffled surface of the sea, looking like huge 
Victoria Regia lily-pads on the placid surface of some tropical 
lake. When at midnight the great red orb dipped almost to 
the southern horizon, the blazing heavens turned the sea to 
molten gold ; the lily-pads took on autumn tints of orange with 
russet shadows, and their upturned rims were topaz; whilst 
the distant icebergs slowly changed into blocks of mother-o'- 
pearl and jasper. It was amidst such never-to-be-forgotten 
scenes that I made my first acquaintance with the midnight sun. 



CHAPTER IV 

BATTLING WITH THE ICE-FLOES 

On December 10th, 1910 — twelve days after leaving New 
Zealand — the Terra Nova crossed the geographical threshold 
of the South, the Antarctic Circle. She was now surrounded 
with ice-floes to the horizon. 

To watch her batthng with the ice was one of the most 
exhilarating experiences I have ever known. It was simply- 
entrancing to lean over the fo'c'sle rail, and see the ship's 
iron-shod prow shearing through, or rending asunder the 
floes, turning them under her forefoot conversely as the 
coulter of a plough turns over the smooth furrows on to the 
land — whilst ever the graven figure at our bow gazed fixedly, 
as though in silent resolution, into the South. I know not 
in whose image her features had been moulded— whether of 
some vision of the carver's dreams, or of Psyche, Helen or 
Penelope; but that fixed and intent southward gaze seemed 
symbolic of our Argonauts, in search of the golden fleece. 

Four years before, I had steamed into the harbour of 
Vladivostock in January, when the bay for some twenty miles 
was covered with six or eight inches of ice. The beautiful 
clipper-bowed Russian packet, that plied between the Siberian 
seaport and Japan, took the ice with a roar at eighteen knots, 
of which fifteen were immediately subtracted from her speed. 
But she crept along at about three miles an hour, cutting the 
ice with a rending sound, and leaving a watery wake astern not 
an inch wider than her breadth of beam. Those had been 
very different conditions from the present; for here the ice 
was not to be measured by inches, but too often by yards. 

From the * crow's-nest ' — a barrel lashed to the main- 

31 



32 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

topmast, with a rail and canvas windshield extending two 
feet above its upper rim — the officer of the watch would ' con ' 
the ship, shouting his directions to the helmsman on the poop, 
fifty yards below. Warmly clothed and snugly sheltered from 
the wind — for when standing in the barrel his eyes were just 
above the rail — from this exalted perch he would gaze far and 
wide across the ice-fields, and select favourable openings in 
the floes, invisible to those on deck. These openings are known 
as ' leads,' and if no lead appeared immediately ahead, the 
ship would try to make one; which she often could, provided 
the floes were not too large, and there were other leads to 
break to. Charging a mass of ice of the superficies of an 
acre or two, the shock would make her tremble from truck 
to keelson and from stem to stern; then, as her forefoot rose 
to the obstacle, she pressed with all her weight, and a crack, 
which rapidly widened into a black lane of water, would shoot 
across the white, cleaving the floe in twain, and into the 
breach her bow was slowly pushed. 

The hull of the Terra Nova was specially built for battling 
with the ice. It was constructed from massive baulks of oak, 
fourteen inches thick; and the bow, which had to bear the 
brunt of all this buffeting, was a solid bulkhead of timber, nine 
feet thick, and sheathed with inch iron-plates. 

Occasionally sodden 'brash' ice would be met with. This 
she would slip through rapidly, to a rustling, soughing sound 
— like waves receding on a shingled beach. Again, the floes 
would be small, and well-broken by some swell they had 
encountered ; these she would scatter aside with a muffled roar. 
Often I saw her open floes well over one hundred yards across 
and two feet thick, but frequently they proved too large or too 
thick to break; then they had to be pushed aside, or a way 
found around them. When there was a reasonable chance 
to split a floe which had withstood the first onslaught, the 
engine was reversed and the ship was backed far enough to 
gather way for a iresh charge; then, with all the speed she 
could make, she would ram again, often with success. But 
there were times when the ice closed in too heavily upon us, 




VIEW FROM THE MAINTOP IN THE PACK. 




A 'LEAD' IN THE PACK. 



32] 



WATERING THE SHIP 33 

and we were powerless to do aught but wait. Sometimes for 
days we had to possess our souls in patience, and go on waiting 
until the action of the ocean currents and the swell broke up 
and scattered our enemy — as we always knew these friendly 
allies would do sooner or later. Thus, yard by yard, for weeks 
we battered through the heaviest pack-ice ever encountered by 
any Antarctic expedition. 

Coming abreast of a thick and hummocky floe the day 
after entering the pack, the ship was stopped so that we might 
get ice aboard to replenish our water supply. The condenser 
could not produce sufficient fresh-water for all our needs, 
and the process made extravagant inroads on our coal reserves : 
moreover, condensed water is not so palatable as fresh. 

No ship need suffer for want of fresh-water in these seas, 
if heavy ice-floes can be found. When the sea freezes to the 
thickness of several feet, the brine is pressed or frozen out of 
the ice that floats above water, leaving it almost saltless. But 
many floes are hummocked with old pressure-ridges, or with 
fragments fallen from bergs; these hummocks we always 
found to be perfectly fresh, and it was alongside of such a 
floe that we now drew abreast. 

The Bo'sun then took charge of operations. This genial soul 
hailed from the port of Hull, and he had seen more Antarctic 
service than any other man. The smell of the ice was as 
the breath of life to Alf Cheetham's nostrils; it seemed he 
could not keep away from it. Not content with having been 
on the Discovery and Nimrod expeditions, he now must needs 
venture once more into the rigours of the Antarctic, where 
his particular duties brought him into contact with the most 
inclement of the elements.* 

* Mr. Cheetham, who already held the record for crossing the 
Antarctic Circle, again went to the Far South in 1914, with the 
Shackleton Expedition, as Bo'sun of the ill-fated Endurance, and was 
one of the party marooned on, and gallantly rescued by Sir Ernest 
from Elephant Island. This fine sailor lost his life in 1918, his trawler 
being torpedoed by a German submarine whilst mine-sweeping in the 
North Sea. 

3 



34 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

Our Bo'sun's face since entering the pack had worn ' the 
smile that won't come off.' He now appeared with an 
implement known as an ' ice-anchor ' — a ponderous, hook- 
shaped bar of iron, with a few barbs cut near its point — ^to 
which he 'bent on' a cable. One of these devices was put 
out at each end of the ship, and firmly planted into a hole 
that had been quickly excavated, with the help of crowbars, 
in the ice; and we soon warped in and made fast to the floe. 
Then all set-to with a will, taking turns with the picks and 
shovels, and in a few hours we had shipped ten tons of ice, 
which, as fast as it came aboard, was cast into iron 
tanks, and speedily converted into water by a jet of steam 
from the boiler. Thus we replenished our depleted fresh- 
water supply, and provided an animated scene for the 
kinematograph. 

During this operation. Dr. Wilson had seized the opportunity 
to shoot a few seabirds; those that fell into the water being 
picked up by Lieut. Bowers in the ' pram ' — a light Norwegian 
dinghy that we carried for such purposes. It seemed strange 
that the noise of the gun did not frighten away the other 
birds that circled about us, fearing nothing because knowing 
nothing of the ways of man. 

The most beautiful birds we met with were the Snow petrels 
which began to appear soon after we entered the pack; 
they are never found north of the ice. As their name implies, 
they are — save for their beaks and feet, which are black — 
white as the driven snows amidst which they live, and are 
about the size of a dove, with the flight of a swallow. As 
they darted from floe to floe, silently as bats in the night, they 
became alternately visible and invisible. Their lack of any 
colouring camouflaged them completely when alighted on or 
flying over the ice; but when they flew across a lead their 
presence was immediately betrayed by a dazzling flash against 
the deep blue of the sea. It seemed a heartless thing to take 
the life of such exquisite creatures ; but the demands of Science 
were inexorable, and several of these dainty beauties of the 
snows paid the penalty of their trust and curiosity. Then, 



THE FIRST PENGUINS 35 

having replenished the water-tanks, we cast off from our 
friendly floe and sidled on our way. 

We bumped along merrily enough for a time, the floes being 
now easy and then formidable to deal with, until some seals 
were sighted ahead, basking on the ice. We drew nearer until 
they were not a hundred yards away; when, as the pack was 
heavy hereabouts and stopping would incur no delay, our 
zoologist cast longing eyes in their direction. A Winchester 
repeater was produced by one of the afterguard, and fire was 
opened from the fo'c'sle. The whole lot, four, were bagged. 
These were the first and only seals shot whilst we were in 
the South; when we landed we found that we could approach 
and slay the unsuspecting creatures with impunity. 

The getting of these seals aboard provided another in- 
teresting subject for the kinematograph, which was duly 
gathered in. They were * Crab-eater ' seals — so-called, so far 
as I could learn, because they have never been known to eat 
crabs. The Crab-eater seal has bifurcated, or forked, teeth for 
the purpose of straining its food, which chiefly consists of the 
Crustacea known as Enphausia, and other small creatures 
that swarm in these waters. Their coats — which are of short 
coarse hair, not fur — were of a russet-brown colour, streaked 
with darker and lighter patches. When the carcases were 
stripped, the skins were salted down and packed in barrels, as 
also were the skeletons. A liberal ration of the meat was 
greatly appreciated by the dogs, and the whole ship's company 
dined off seal-liver curry the same night. It made a delicious 
meal. 

The first Adelie penguins * popped up ' the same day. I use 
this expression because it is the only one I can think of that 
correctly expresses the manner of the first appearance of these 
comedians of the Antarctic. I was standing on the poop at 
the time, when suddenly there shot out of the water — quick as 
a Jack-in-the-box — several midget figures, seemingly dressed in 
swallowtail coats with an excessive expanse of shirt front; and 
they stood looking at the ship, first cocking their heads on one 
side, then on the other, quite obviously wondering what in the 



36 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

world the extraordinary object could be. Their amazement 
was extremely comical, as they regarded us with white-ringed 
eyes. Finding they could make nothing of the ship, they 
plopped back into the water as quickly as they had popped out 
of it, leaving us all greatly amused over this, our introduction 
to the real inhabitants of the Southland, and hoping that we 
should soon see more of them. We were not disappointed. 
A touring party next appeared. I assume they must have been 
a tourist band on pleasure bent, because at this time of the year 
all serious-minded Adelies should be attending to their young 
ones. These, I took it, were care-free individuals, unhampered 
by such responsibilities, and out to see the world. This con- 
tingent popped up several floes away, just as the ship was 
brought to a stop by heavy pack. They advanced in double 
file, extended formation; some sliding along on their bellies, 
whilst others waddled on their hind legs, which are at the 
extremity of their bodies. By this I do not mean to suggest 
that they possess more than the orthodox biped equipment ; but 
it comes naturally to use the expression ' hind legs ' when 
referring to penguins, because when they toboggan, or slide 
along on their bellies, they use their flippers as well as their 
legs as a means of propulsion, and appear to be going on all- 
fours. Having arrived close to the ship's quarter, they closed 
up their ranks, and entered upon a pow-wow of a serious nature, 
of which it was evident that the ship was the subject. 

Someone tossed a potato on to the ice, an act which was pro- 
ductive of much excitement among our visitors, and the confab 
at once became of a more animated tone. The vegetable was 
at first regarded with suspicion, until one individual, bolder 
than the rest, decided to investigate; whereupon the whole 
company followed suit, each in turn closely scrutinising the 
strange object, with much expression of opinion in the nature 
of raucous, crow-like squawks. One after the other they eyed 
it critically and tested it with their beaks, lifting it and letting 
it drop, and then repeating the process, as though estimating 
its weight. Whilst each in turn examined it, the 
others solemnly looked on, passing remarks at appropriate 



ICEBOUND AGAIN 37 

intervals. Then one would try to make off with it, but the 
others followed and made him drop it. Finally, apparently 
finding the presence of such a strange object in such a place 
inexplicable, they camped around it and went to sleep. When 
they woke up, they regarded the potato with the same 
surprise and curiosity as before, and began their examination 
of it all over again. 

Thus, at the outset of our meeting with these most interesting 
and amusing birds — for birds they are — we found that curiosity 
was one of their main characteristics; it is one of the traits 
that make these queer, amphibious creatures seem so human. 
Later, as we became more intimately associated with Adelie 
penguins, we learnt to regard them with respect and affection. 
I shall have more to say about these remarkable creatures in 
a subsequent chapter. 

We now had a period of bad luck. We encountered floes so 
large and thick that the ship was brought to another complete 
halt. Admirably fitted as the Terra Nova was for battling 
with the ice-floes, economy in coal had not proved to be a virtue 
of her engine; so the fires were drawn until such time as the 
prison walls that hemmed us in should open, as we knew they 
must do sooner or later. For three days we were held fast in 
the heavy pack that had closed in upon us, and not until five 
days later did we recover the lee-way that the ship made during 
this time, owing to the northward drift of the ice. 

Time was of vital importance to the main object of our 
enterprise. It was Captain Scott's hope to lay depots of 
supplies, before the winter set in, for some two or three hundred 
miles south on the Great Ice Barrier — the highway to his goal. 
These depots of fodder and food would provide sustenance for 
the Polar Party on their journey to the Pole next year. As 
every day, and indeed every hour was of such value, it was 
exasperating to be lying thus idly in the ice; and more exas- 
perating still to know that we were drifting northwards every 
minute. 

The Terra Nova imprisoned in the ice, with her canvas 
hanging idly, or clewed-up into picturesque folds, formed a 



38 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

striking picture. Close by her jibboom, where pressure had 
forced the thick floes upward, there stood a pillar of ice, perhaps 
fallen from some monster berg as it charged with irresistible 
force through everything it met with on its dying journey 
northward. This pillar had been sculpted by the elements into 
the likeness of almost human features, with a sardonic grin, 
as though in mockery of our present unhappy predicament (see 
Frontispiece). The leads were cobalt mirrors, which reflected 
the fleece-strewn heavens between gleaming ice-walls a yard in 
height, forming welcome foregrounds for pictures on which 
Wilson and I busied ourselves with pencil and camera. 
[ The delay gave us a welcome chance to stretch our legs; so 

' Lieut. Gran produced from the hold great bundles of the Scan- 

dinavian snowshoes, called ski. Tryggv^er Gran is a Nor- 
wegian, and one of the most expert ski-runners in the world. 
Amongst other notabilities, he informed us he had numbered 
the Queen of Norway as one of his pupils. He now took 
in hand a score or so of less exalted individuals. Ski have of 
recent years become very popular among winter-sporters in 
Switzerland. They are narrow strips of wood, about seven 
or eight feet long, which are strapped to the boots. The ideal 
surface for ski-ing is soft, smooth snow ; but as Polar ice-floes 
have usually anything but a soft and even surface, and are 
liberally besprinkled with lumps and scarred with cracks and 
ridges, they do not form an ideal place to acquire the art. 
When ski-ing, one must slide each foot forward in turn; to 
attempt to lift the feet, as when skating, is to invite disastrous 
results. As most beginners naturally make this error, the 
scenes on the ice-floes in the region of the ship that day gave 
plenty of entertainment to the onlookers — limbs and ski being 
at times badly mixed, as the learner encountered an unexpected 
mound or pitfall. Everyone was anxious to learn, however, 
and Gran put us through some strenuous hours of exercise. 

The dogs became wildly excited when they saw so much 
animation on the ice ; so Meares and his kennel-man, Dimitri, 
harnessed some of them to a sledge, to give them a run. But 
the team catching sight of some penguins leaping out of the 



A KNOWING 'EMPEROR' 89 

water in a near-by lead, got out of hand, and yelping with antici- 
pation, bolted for the birds. For a minute it looked as though 
the team would end up in the sea, but Dimitri proved equal 
to the occasion and skilfully got the dogs under control again. 
In our progress through the pack-ice we had occasionally 
seen whales spouting in the open-water channels. Whilst I was 
photographing out on the ice-floes this day, I heard what must 
have been a huge one blow in a near-by lead. A loud, hollow- 
sounding blast made me look round, just in time to catch a 
glimpse of the head of a whale receding from view, and a cloud 
of vapour condensing in the air. It was probably one of the 
great Blue whales, or Sibbald's Rorqual. When these huge 
creatures breathe through such narrow openings in the ice as in 
this instance, they must stand on their tails and * tread-water/ 
so to speak, in order to get their nostrils above water. I noticed 
that the whale's head disappeared perpendicularly. 

After holding the ship in its grip for three days, the ice 
opened up under the influence of the currents ; so the fires were 
relighted, and once more we proceeded on our way. Soon after 
starting, from the fo'c'sle I espied with my glass a strange 
object on the ice and, after carefully scrutinising it, reported 
the first Emperor penguin — thereby, I trust, attaining a little 
merit. He was a beautiful fellow, about forty inches in height, 
standing motionless, in an attitude of silent meditation. The 
ship was manoeuvred into range; but when the lethal gaze of 
our zoologist rested yearningly upon him along a rifle-barrel, 
his majesty seemed to scent the sacrificial altar; so, waddling 
to the ice-edge, with a graceful header he subsided from our 
view — thereby avoiding post mortem association with the 
earthly remains of his more diminutive, Adelie compatriots in 
the lab' adjoining mine. 

Immense bergs had been in the offing during the time we 
had been icebound, and one of them, which had been slowly 
working nearer, was watched with some apprehension. Had 
It approached too close to windward, and the wind had risen, 
it might have borne down upon us with unpleasant results. 
Bergs, such as these, present a great area to the elements, and 



40 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

when they start to travel they demand undisputed right of way. 
There was always the danger, when icebergs were to windward 
in the pack, that they might bear down upon the ship and 
make a summary ending of the enterprise. 

This berg was a remarkably picturesque and interesting sight 
for it was midway on its journey to decay. The process of 
erosion affects no two bergs alike. As, in course of time, 
the submarine portion becomes worn away by the currents, 
the centre of gravity changes; the berg tilts and finally 
turns over. Then the wildest efforts of imagination would 
fail to conceive the fantastic shapes that sometimes emerge 
to view as the formerly submerged portion of the ice- 
island rises to the surface. This berg„ had obviously tilted, 
exposing a large water-worn section at one end, whilst 
the list had caused the whole upper strata to slide off, leaving 
several large masses behind, ready at any moment to gravitate 
into the sea. It had likely enough spent more than one season 
drifting amidst the floes since starting on its northward way; 
but the next swell it encountered would send it thundering 
into a thousand fragments. 

Like many others, this berg was the subject of much 
interesting discussion by our scientists ; some maintaining that 
it was not a Barrier berg, but had parted from some 
pressure-tortured land glacier. From such differences of 
opinion amongst our experts — some of whom had not 
previously visited these regions — one gathered that their 
hypotheses were frequently founded on speculation, the most 
plausible theory being that accepted. Sound as their 
arguments always were, and advanced with a sincerity that no 
one could question, yet there often remained a doubt; thus one 
learned to form one's own theories about such things. I had 
formed my own idea about this berg before hearing the con- 
troversy which it excited, and I felt that I was progressing in 
Polar lore when both Captain Scott and Dr. Wilson corro- 
borated it, and pronounced it to be a Barrier berg. The 
picturesque ruin crept up to within half-a-mile of us, and 
provided material for some striking photographs and sketches. 




AN ICEBERG MIDWAY ON ITS JOURNEY TO DECAY. 




KINEMATOGRAPHING IN THE PACK. 



40J 



KINEMATOGRAPHING THE PACK-ICE 41 

I was anxious to secure a moving-picture film showing the 
bow of the Terra Nova cleaving the ice-floes ; this ambition was 
now realised, thanks to the help of our worthy Bo'sun and 
Petty Officer Williamson, who rigged some planks extending 
ten feet from the starboard side of the fo'c'sle, to the end of 
which I fixed the kinematograph with its tilting-table. Spread- 
eagling myself on the end of these planks, I had a field of 
view clear under the overhanging prow. As the ship bumped 
into the floes, I hung on as best I could, and with one arm 
clung tightly to my precious camera lest it should break loose 
and fall into the sea, whilst with the other hand I turned the 
handle. But frequently I had to stop and grip the planks hard 
to avoid taking an unpremeditated header. Fortunately, 
however, no mishap occurred; and the result — showing the 
iron-shod stem of the ship splitting and rending the broken 
ice into the foaming sea — proved to be one of the most thrilhng 
of all the moving-picture records of the Expedition. 

One of the most remarkable bergs sighted during the voyage 
was almost conical in form, the apex of its low cone being 
in the centre of the berg, and the summit bearing every simili- 
tude to land. This berg was the cause of more discussion 
than any other that we saw, on account of its extraordinary 
resemblance to an island; the consensus of opinion, however, 
was that it was an iceberg. I had it under observation 
for an hour through a Zeiss 12 X prismatic binocular, presented 
to me by a friend just before leaving London. With the aid 
of this fine glass I carefully scrutinised the dark summit and 
the low ice-clififs that were so unlike any other berg we saw. 
No one could explain its form, and, as all the arguments that 
I heard against its being land were unconvincing, I still wonder, 
when I look at the photograph of this berg, if some day an 
island will be discovered there. 

One afternoon the ship entered a narrow lane of water, a 
mile or more in length, with low tabular bergs, of great area 
and from ten to twenty feet in height, on either side of us. It 
was a most ominous-looking place, as from the deck we could 
not see the end of the lead. The officer aloft in the crow's- 



. 



42 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

nest must have seen it, however, or he would not have 
placed the ship in what appeared to us below as such a perilous 
situation. Had we found ourselves in a cul de sac and the 
bergs had drifted together, the ship must inevitably have been 
crushed to splinters. I think all on board experienced a 
sensation of relief when we finally steamed clear of this ill- 
omened-looking place. 

Tedious as was our progress, we yet advanced slowly Pole- 
wards. The evening before Christmas again found the road 
closed to us by heavy pack, after having worked our way some 
sixty miles southward during the preceding five days. At night 
the sun was warm and bright, and there was not a breath 
of wind astir. It may seem strange that I should write of the 
sun shining at night, but we had now been fourteen days in 
the regions of constant summer daylight, day and night. I 
stayed up until long after midnight, busy with my cameras 
on the lovely effects of light and shadow created by the sun- 
beams as they played amongst the ice-floes. 

It had been a source of great disappointment to me that the 
skies had been dull and overcast during the greater part of 
our progress through the pack — rendering photography of 
much of the finest ice scenery futile. In cloudy weather the 
ice-fields appeared blank and featureless, no matter how broken 
up they were; but a shaft of sunlight falling on the uneven 
surfaces instantly transformed desolation into entrancing 
beauty. No precious hour of sunshine could therefore be 
wasted — whichever of the twenty-four it might be. 

Not a breath of wind ruffled the surface of the sea, on this 
most wonderful of all Christmas Eves. In its limpid mirror 
every cumulus or loafing cirrus in the heavens was faithfully 
imaged. A lone Adelie penguin jumped out of the looking- 
glass and stood on the floe for an hour, blinking at the ship 
in wonder, until, warmed by the grateful rays of the midnight 
sun and lulled by the silence that prevailed, it tucked its head 
under its flipper, and roosted where it stood. 

Christmas Day found us still in these seasonable surroundings 
—in 69° 5' S., 178° 30' E. In spite of our long, vexatious 



CHRISTMAS IN THE PACK 43 

delay, everything had gone merrily since we entered the pack- 
ice, and the spirit of camaraderie exhibited by all aboard was 
good promise for the future. Though the weather had become 
dull and cloudy, merging the ice-covered sea and the sky into 
shroud-like, shadowless white, the whole ship's company were 
in the sunniest of spirits. It was to be a day of rest and 
recreation. During the morning Captain Scott read the 
Church Service, and after lunch each of the afterguard went 
about his affairs, or read or snoozed in his bunk until it was 
time for dinner. The ward-room was gaily dressed with 
banners that many had brought along as sledging-flags, 
appliqued and embroidered with heraldic devices by soft, 
beloved hands at home. Our cooks had stretched their skill 
and drawn upon their resources to the utmost to do honour 
to the occasion, and ample justice was done by all to their noble 
efforts. An enormous sirloin of roast beef was preceded by 
a great tureen of turtle-soup, and an entree of stewed 
penguin's breasts and red currant jelly — a dish fit for an 
epicure and not unlike jugged hare. Then, amidst yells and 
cheers, came Christmas pudding, all afire, and mince pies, 
preserved fruits, sweets and crackers galore. We toasted our 
Leader and success to the enterprise in champagne, to which 
he replied in a short and characteristically appropriate speech ; 
and we drank to each other. Then, after the * Christmas 
parcels,' which many had brought, had been opened and their 
contents generously handed round, our musical talent, such 
as it was, was called upon. 

The daylight night above was thick with falling snow; and 
long into the small hours sounds of revelry from the ward-room 
and the fo'c'sle broke the vast stillness of the icefields of the 
South. 



CHAPTER V 

THE GREAT ICE BARRIER 

Interesting operations had intermittently been carried on 
aboard; I have alluded but once to the manning of the pumps. 
Our ship made a certain quantity of water ; there was nothing 
unusual about that — all other ships do likewise. But the Terra 
Nova made an unusual quantity of water, a failing which 
added greatly to the labour of working her. She had sprung a 
leak on the voyage to New Zealand; but it was thought that 
when she had been drydocked and overhauled and caulked at 
Lyttelton, no more would be heard of the trouble. When, 
however, she was refloated and reloaded the leak was found to 
be almost as bad as ever. Not until the ship returned to New 
Zealand — six months later, after landing the Expedition in the 
South — was the cause discovered. It was then found to be 
due to a badly-fitting bolt in her timbers, underneath the upper 
part of the iron sheathing of her forefoot, and through this hole 
a miniature cataract gushed unceasingly. 

As the steam-pump ate heavily into our precious coal 
reserves, it was necessary to make frequent use of the hand- 
pump to get rid of the water thus made. When we were 
running under canvas only, or were lying ice-bound with fires 
banked, the latter only could be used. This hand-pump was 
at the foot of the main-mast, and was operated by means of 
a heavy, cranked iron bar, extending therefrom on either side 
athwart the ship to bearings on the bulwarks. The radius of 
this handle was from about a man's forehead to his knees. 

I had cause to remember this crank, about sixteen months 
later. On the homeward voyage, I had gone for'ard one day 
when the seas were sweeping through the ship's waist, and 

44 



LIEUTENANT RENNICK 45 

after watching my chance to get back, I made a dash for it, 
just after a sea had found the scuppers. As I was wearing 
a sou'-wester hat, I did not see the pump-handle, and, running 
into it, I got a knock-out blow. I managed to crawl to the poop 
ladder before the next wave came, which might have washed me 
overboard, and Lieut. Bruce, who was on the bridge, helped 
me up. I received ' two lovely black eyes,' but was thankful 
to have got off without a broken nose. 

Twice, daily, and once in the night watches, sixteen of the 
ship's company, officers and men together, would man this 
crank, and to the lively chanty ' Ranzo, boys, Ranzo,' a flood 
of water poured from the lip of the pump, until the soloist 
reached the stanza reciting the hero's promotion to the com- 
mand of the ship, about which time chuckling and gurgling 
sounds emerging from the well, and the easy swing of the great 
cranks, indicated that the valves were sucking air and that the 
bilge was once more normal. 

There was nothing particularly inspiring about this work, 
other than its effect on arms and abdomens. When we were 
held up in the pack-ice a more entertaining operation was 
' sounding.' 

This was always carried out by Lieut. H. de P. Rennick, 
one of the best-natured and kindest-hearted sailors that ever 
trod a quarter-deck or entered up a log. It is with a sad 
heart that I pen his name, for many a time and oft have I 
kept watch with ' Parney ' on the Terra Nova's bridge. When 
homeward bound through those stormy southern seas, we 
would ' swap yarns ' and sing through our repertoires in the 
night hours, to the accompaniment of the wind that howled 
and whistled through the rigging, and of the waves that went 
hissing and soughing by. The gallant young officer, for whom 
I formed a life-long friendship, now lies in a sailor's grave in 
the North Sea, sent there by his country's enemies when H.M.S. 
Hogue went down. He left a young bride to mourn his loss. 

For plumbing the ocean depths a Lucas Sounding Machine 
— a small hand-winch fastened to a heavy steel tripod, which 
was bolted to the port side of the fo'c'sle — was used. The reel 



46 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

of this winch held five miles of piano wire, to the end of which 
a lead weight would be attached. This was then dropped over 
the side to the bottom of the sea, carrying with it an instrument 
for ascertaining the temperature. When the plummet touched 
bottom, the jerk released a reversing registering thermometer, 
which recorded the temperature, whilst a pocket in the base 
of the weight entrapped a sample of the ocean bed. Other 
reversing thermometers were fixed to the line at various 
intervals. Thus, in addition to ascertaining the depth, several 
other important results were secured at a single operation. 

The samples brought up by the weight from time to time 
showed that the ocean floor was either blue mud, globigerena 
ooze, or diatom ooze. These oozes are of great biological 
interest. Globigerena ooze is a calcareous deposit of unknown 
thickness, formed of the shells of tiny Crustacea which fall to 
the bottom of the sea when the microscopic organisms that 
inhabit them die. Diatom ooze is a siliceous deposit formed 
of the skeletons of minute sea plants, which, like the dead 
globigerenes, are continually falling like rain to the bed of the 
ocean. Globigerena ooze is not found at a greater depth than 
2,000 fathoms, as beyond that depth the shells dissolve; but | 
the siliceous skeletons of diatoms are indissoluble in sea-water, 
and may be found at any depth. When dry, globigerena ooze 
is a white powder; and it is of such deposits that the chalk 
beds, now on land, were originally formed in the bed of the sea. 

The greatest depth recorded in the pack-ice was 2,108 
fathoms (over two miles), at which depth the temperature 
was about two degrees higher than the surface water. In 
subsequent soundings the depth gradually decreased until the 
shelf of the Antarctic continent was reached. The weighing, 
or winding in, of all this wire with the instruments attached 
to it, by means of a small winch operated by hand, was a 
gruelling task for a number of hands working in ten-minute 
shifts for several hours. But when the ship returned South a 
year later, she carried a small petrol engine for this purpose; 
this saved the afterguard — who had hitherto taken spells at 
weighing the wire — some hours of real back-breaking, 




LIEUT. H. DE P. RENNICK. 



LIEUT. H. L. PENNELL. 




BO'SUX A. CHEETHAM. 



LIEUT. W. BRUCE: 



to] 



OUR BIOLOGISTS 47 

shoulder-racking funishment, each time we sounded. During 
this and the subset uent voyages made by the Terra Nova after 
landing us on Ross Island, the numerous soundings taken have 
greatly added to knowledge of the southern seas. On one 
occasion a whale ran into the wire and parted it, and the 
apparatus was lost. On another occasion the weight dropped 
on to a whale's back, it was supposed, as it seemed to touch 
bottom, and immediately afterwards the wire began to pay 
out again for many hundreds of fathoms. 

Important experiments were also carried out by our two 
biologists, D. G. Lillie and E. W. Nelson, with tow-nets of 
various kinds. One was a long tapering affair, made of 
strong but loosely woven fabric attached to a rim some sixteen 
inches in diameter, from which it was reduced by a truncated, 
cone-shaped, additional piece of the same fabric to a smaller 
rim of about six inches diameter, which formed the opening. 
A lead weight was fixed to the end of the device, and it 
was dropped overboard and towed astern for a while — the 
weight being sufficient to keep the net a few feet below the 
surface of the water. Through the opening in this trap, 
obliging diatoms, and minute forms of organic life with which 
these Polar seas swarm, and perhaps a few tiny Crustacea 
would enter ; and having entered must perforce abandon hope. 
The net would then be hauled aboard, the contents carefully 
sorted, and selected specimens subjected to microscopical 
examination. 

In the biological laboratory there were rows of glass jars, 
in which these low forms of life were hermetically sealed in 
spirit and preserved for examination in after years at our home 
laboratories — for it takes years to examine and report on the 
biological results of an expedition such as this. 

To peep through the eye of our biologist's microscope at 
the details of their catch, was to enter such a world as quite 
bewilders description. Seen through this magic medium, 
organisms so diminutive as to be almost invisible to the unaided 
sight assumed a girth of inches; less minute organic forms 
became ferocious beasts ; and tiny crustaceans, a millimetre long, 



48 THE GREAT WHITE SCUTH 

became such monsters as one almost shrank from, with evil 
eyes and voracious-looking jaws. 

Diatoms are so numerous in these waters as to stain yellow 
the bottom of the ice-floes to which they cling. On these 
the smallest of organic creatures feed; and these again are 
preyed upon by the lower forms of Crustacea; which, in turn, 
provide a cannibalistic menu for their bigger relatives. The 
largest of these surface crustaceans, Euphausia — a, sort of 
shrimp an inch or more in length — form the diet of fish and 
penguins, from which a ferocious seal, called a Sea-leopard, 
makes a two-course dinner of fish and fowl; and then the 
Killer whales devour the seals. (How another, and human 
link was nearly added to the chain a week later — when the 
writer narrowly escaped providing a personal repast for a 
party of these wolves of the sea — you shall hear in time.) 

Thus the struggle for existence wages; life in the sea being, 
as indeed it is on land, a never-ending warfare of creatures 
preying on some other. One has but to learn that the immense 
baleen whales that swarm in these seas — mionsters running to 
one hundred feet in length, or more — subsist largely on the little 
Euphausia, to realise how prodigious must be their numbers. 

Sometimes our biologists would lower into the ocean depths 
an instrument called an Insulated Water Bottle — an intricate 
piece of apparatus which would imprison and bring up a sample 
of the sea-water from any desired depth, for analytical 
purposes. Why anyone should want to know the salinity 
of the water in the depths of the Antarctic Ocean may not 
be obvious to the layman ; but Science demanded such informa- 
tion, and, as time went on, some hundreds of bottles of these 
samples were accumulated and carefully stored away for 
examination on our return to England. 

Another interesting instrument was the Current Meter, which 
recorded the direction and velocity of the ocean currents — for 
volumes of water are always moving in some direction in the 
sea. This device, which resembled a great gadfly, or a minia- 
ture aeroplane with folded wings — the wings or blades being 
for the purpose of keeping its head to the stream — was only 



LIEUTENANT PENNELL 49 

used at such times as the ship was icebound. It was lowered 
through a hole cut in a floe, the operation being carried out 
by our two biologists. 

Occasionally Lieut. H. L. Pennell would take a large compass 
out on to the ice, and check its readings with those of the 
standard instrument aboard; or he would take observations 
with a sextant used in conjunction with a box containing a tiny 
lake of quicksilver, called an Artificial Horizon. 

Harry Pennell, our Navigating Officer, was the most 
energetic man I have ever known. The end of a day's work 
that might well have wearied the hardiest, would find him 
fit and fresh as the beginning; and during the entire voyage, 
no matter how inclement the weather, he never slept elsewhere 
than wrapped up in blankets on the chart-table on the Terra 
Nova's bridge. He seldom came below except for meals. 
When Pennell was not occupied with navigating problems, he 
was either on watch, or conning from the crow's-nest, or else 
out on the yard-arms helping the seamen set or shorten sail, 
or otherwise assisting in the handling of the ship. He was 
a * whale for work.' 

The services of this brilliant officer were of inestimable value 
to the Expedition; for, after the exploring parties had been 
landed in the South, he was in command of the Terra Nova 
during her subsequent voyages. His quiet, modest, unassuming 
manner only accentuated his obvious intellectual talents; and 
all his friends marked him out for a distinguished career. But, 
like so many others of Britain's best and bravest, he gave 
his life for his country five years later — in the North Sea, not 
far from where his friend Lieut. Rennick died. He went 
down in H.M.S. Queen Mary, of which he was Navigating 
Commander, in the Battle of Jutland. Harry Pennell also 
left a young bride to mourn him. 

Every morning before breakfast the spartan Bowers would 
undergo a stoical ordeal on the poop. A small hand-pump, 
with which he and others had been wont regularly to 
raise water for their matutinal shower, was now frozen and 
a mass of icicles. Not to be done, however, out of his daily 
4 



50 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

mortifying of the flesh, Bowers would cast a bucket over astern, 
and hauling it aboard full of icy water and slush, would upset 
it, or persuade a comrade to upset it, over his nude anatomy, 
and then repeat the process. After these acts of self-affliction. 
Bowers — who normally differed from the rest of his ship- 
mates by the remarkable pinkness of his skin — would exhibit 
a fiery glow from head to foot. 

No wonder Scott wrote of him : ' He is the hardiest man 
that ever went into the Polar regions.' 

With the exception of Wilson, Atkinson and Nelson, who 
had also kept up occasional fresh-air ablutions after entering 
the pack-ice, such methods now lacked attraction for the rest 
of us. We contented ourselves with a hand-basin wash below 
each day, and a weekly tub by means of a bucket of warm 
water in the engine-room. 

Three days after Christmas, whilst we were again held up 
in heavy pack, the ship's poop presented for several hours the 
appearance of a pleasure-steamer in mid-Pacific; as all the 
afterguard lay about the deck asleep, basking in the rays of 
the sun. This anomalous condition of affairs for such latitudes 
was due to the fact that there was not so much as a zephyr 
astir, and the ' mercury ' had risen within a couple of degrees 
of the freezing-point. So free from moisture is the air in 
these regions, that when the temperature rose to anywhere near 
32° Fahrenheit, and there was no breeze, the warmth became 
almost oppressive. 

Later in the day, the look-out in the crow's-nest reported that 
the ice appeared to be thinner and more broken up ahead; so 
the banked fires were stoked once more, and we started off on 
what proved to be our last lap in the pack-ice. 

As we progressed, the floes were more easily navigable than 
they had been for many days. They were small and well- 
broken, proving that they had recently been subjected to a 
swell, and had not become re-cemented by the frost. They 
were heaped up in places by pressure and by over-riding one 
another; and presently the shapes that the piled-up fragments 
had assumed became weirdly beautiful and fantastic. Some 




THE 'TERRA NOVA' IN HEAVY ICE. 




WELL-BROKEN ICE-FLOES. 



50] 



THE LAST OF THE PACK-ICE 51 

of the forms were almost like huge flowers, whilst but little 
effort of imagination turned others into the very siniilitude of 
animals — for fancy easily runs riot in these regions. The 
sunbeams played amongst this zoological ice-garden bewitch- 
ingly, and I ran to fetch my kinematograph to record the 
extraordinary scene. But before I could get it ready we had 
passed out of the region of these wonders — one of the strangest 
and most beautiful appearances we saw whilst in the ice-floes. 

Soon after midnight we passed through the last of the out- 
lying belts of mushy, broken ice, and steamed at our full speed 
of seven knots into the open water of the Ross Sea. We had 
entered the ice on the morning of December 9th, 1910, in 
latitude 65^°; and we passed out of it about midnight on 
December 29th, in latitude 71^° S. We had been but a few 
hours short of three weeks among the floes, and during that 
time had steadily worked our way south for over four hundred 
statute miles. 

It was with a feeling almost of regret that I saw the last of 
the pack-ice; we had been in it so long, and it had been so 
ever-changing in its aspects, and had seldom failed to have 
some daily novelty and surprises. Unearthing from the pigeon- 
holes of memory episodes of my wanderings o'er the earth, 
those three weeks among the ice-floes stand out in luminous 
relief ; and as I write these lines I can almost hear the swish 
and roar and grinding of the ice, and can almost feel the 
shocks that set us staggering as the Terra Nova's ironshod prow 
forced aside the floes, or split them silently asunder. The 
good old ship had become to me an object of affection, an 
almost human thing — a token of all that is steadfast, sound 
and true. She was like some great and forceful personality, 
scorning difficulties, and, resolute and undaunted, wearing down 
all opposition and overcoming every obstacle, pressing ever 
forward to success. 

Though we sighted other streams of pack-ice, we did not 
become involved in them ; but a strong wind now rising. Captain 
Scott decided to lay-to in the smooth water in the lee of the 
belt, so as to secure easier conditions for the ponies, which 



52 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

were in no fit condition to stand a repetition of the buffeting 
they had been submitted to a month ago. 

The New Year saw us clear of all our troubles. Bright 
sunny weather, an ice-free sea and a fair wind were all that 
we could desire, and we bowled merrily along with all our 
canvas pulling and bellying to the breeze. Great swelling 
billows of cumulus — glorious contrasts of light and shadow 
— floated in the heavens, or detached themselves into woolly 
clusters. Such weather made the very drawing of the breath 
of life a joy. It filled one with a sensation of delight to throw 
back the arms, expand the chest, and, opening wide the lungs, 
inhale great stimulating draughts of the sweet exhilarating air. 
It made one thrill and tingle with very gladness to be alive, and 
to have health and strength and feel the marvel of it all. 

On January 3rd, 1911, after two days of uneventful sailing, 
a curious illusion appeared in the lowering clouds — a brilliant 
glare of light reflected from some ice which lay ahead of us. 
This was the phenomenon known to Polar explorers as ' Ice 
Blink.' From the masthead we could see that this strange 
effect was produced by a wall of ice which loomed up on the 
southern horizon. It was the Great Ice Barrier at last! 

Forty miles away on the starboard bow, Mt. Terror, the 
great dormant volcano on Ross Island, was a magnificent sight 
as it reared its lava slopes far up into the clouds that shrouded 
its waist ; but Erebus, its active mate, had not as yet appeared 
— ^being behind Terror, and hidden amongst the mists. It was 
thrilling and inspiring to gaze on this Antarctic land which 
that great adventurer, Sir James Ross, had been the first to 
see — seventy years before. 

Shortly after noon we hove-to off the Barrier to reconnoitre. 
Away to the east the interminable rampart meandered into the 
distance; ahead of us it barred all further progress, a bulwark 
sixty feet in height. But we seemed to have been wandering 
for years amongst icebergs, and, after our long association with 
* chips of the old block,' our meeting with the parent body 
itself excited little surprise or comment. To us, icebergs, 
either free or fast, no longer held the spell of the unusual. 






ICE-BLINK OVER THE GREAT ICE BARRIER. 




MIDNIGHT SUN IN THE ROSS SEA. 



52] 



THE GREAT ICE BARRIER 58 

The face of the diff was pitted and caverned by the waves, 
and in and out and round about those grottoes joyous penguins 
disported themselves, doing the most astonishing aquatic tricks 
and gambols. Some leapt along over the water like dolphins ; 
or as a flat stone cast into a pond ricochets over the surface 
again and again, a dozen times or more. Others sprang out 
of the water on to, or nose-dived from the ice-blocks. That 
they were performing thus for our entertainment, I am not 
prepared to affirm; that they even found the ship an object of 
much diversion I had some doubts, though some of them made 
excursions alongside of us, and, jumping on to ice-rafts, eyed 
our craft with curiosity unmingled with any trace of fear. 
For all the interest the penguin population exhibited in our 
arrival, ships might have been coming here daily for years, 
instead of twice previously during the present generation. 

The Great Ice Barrier, discovered by Sir James Ross in 
1840, is the greatest known ice-sheet on earth. Extending from 
South Victoria Land in the west, to King Edward VII Land 
in the east, a distance of over 400 miles; and southwards to 
the mountains that border the Polar Plateau, 400 miles or 
more from its edge — it is estimated to be at least 160,000 square 
miles in area, or nearly the size of the total area of France. 
Authorities differ as to whether the Barrier rests on land, 
or floats. Captain Amundsen, who spent a winter on it, three 
miles from its edge, states positively that it rests on land. 
Captain Scott was equally positive that it is afloat. 

Amundsen based his opinion on the lack of any perceptible 
movement during his stay, and to the constant level maintained 
by his theodolite. Scott's conviction was founded on baro- 
metric and other observations made during three years at a 
number of points; and on soundings taken along the Barrier 
edge from end to end. These soundings showed that the sea ex- 
ceeded 1,800 feet in depth along the greater part of the distance. 
At this was frequently more than ten or twenty times the height 
of the exposed ice, there could be no question that the front, at 
least, was afloat. Our scientists were also unanimously of the 
opinion that the Barrier is a floating ice-shelf. 



[ 



54 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

We could see that the submarine portion of the great ice- 
wall was deeply undermined by the action of the waves; but 
several hundred feet of unseen ice, somewhere below, reflected 
so much light that the sea was brilliant emerald green. The 
opal caverns above the surface — from the roofs of which a 
myriad ice spears menaced the sporting penguins — were all 
ablaze with turquoise, green and purple, and their inmost 
recesses were azure. In these wondrous grottoes played 
hundreds of Peter Pan fairies — rainbow-hued flashes of light, 
mirrored by the dancing, lapping wavelets. 

Such was the Great Ice Barrier — the birth-place of thousands 
of the icebergs which break away each year in masses some- 
times many miles in length. The largest berg met with during 
the Expedition was twenty-three miles long ; the ship ' coasted ' 
along it for several hours on the second homeward voyage. 
Such an iceberg could carry a city the size of London and all 
its suburbs on its back. 

Abutting on the Barrier, a perpendicular wall of rock — two 
hundred and fifty feet in height — rose out of the sea a few 
cables' length to the westward of where the Terra Nova lay. 
These were the cliffs of Cape Crozier, and above them towered 
the black foothills of Mt. Terror, whose ten-thousand-feet- 
high summit was lost, away and beyond, in the clouds. The 
whole of this region is volcanic rock, the beetling cliffs being 
faced in places with irregular basaltic columns. Though not so 
perfect, they reminded me of the beautiful hexagonal pillars on 
the Fuji river near Minobu, in Japan, which, for a quarter-of-a- 
mile, are regular in formation as a paling, thirty yards in height. 

It had been Captain Scott's fond hope that he might have 
found a landing-place hereabouts; so he, Dr. Wilson and the 
geologists put off in one of the whale-boats to prospect the 
locality where the Barrier edge pressed in a series of confused 
seracs against the towering cliffs; but from the ship the 
outlook appeared to be hopeless, and the party soon returned 
corroborating this view. 

Captain Scott and Dr. Wilson had explained to m.e the many 
reasons why Cape Crozier would be a most desirable base 




THE GREAT ICE BARRIER AND MT. TERROR. 




THE CLIFFS OF CAPE CROZIER. 



54] 



IMPOSSIBLE TO LAND 55 

to establish winter-quarters, if it were possible to land there. 
They had both explored the district when on the Discovery 
Expedition. For the main objects of the enterprise the 
situation would have been admirable in many respects. Shelter 
from the southern storms would have been afforded by Mt. 
Terror and its foothills; the Barrier edge would have been 
close at hand for observation; there would have been almost 
unlimited territory for rambles and for exercising the animals, 
and there was the additional fascinating prospect of being 
close to the largest known Adelie penguin rookery, and to the 
only breeding-ground of the Emperor penguins that had ever 
been discovered. The Emperors breed, in the winter, at the 
foot of the Cape Crozier lava cliffs, and the Adelie penguinry 
was but a mile or two away. 

But no landing-place could be found alongside of which to 
bring the ship for unloading our heavy gear and equipment, 
and the tempting prospect had perforce to be abandoned. It 
was a great disappointment to all. The Terra Nova's course 
was then laid for McMurdo Sound. 

Captain Scott had described the Great Ice Barrier to me 
with great enthusiasm in London ; and it had been arranged 
that, when we reached it, the ship should steam for several 
miles along its face, so that I might secure photographs and 
moving-pictures of this eighth wonder of the world. And now 
it was before us, with the sun shining from an almost cloudless 
sky, throwing its creviced and caverned precipices into 
magnificent effects of light and shade; the conditions could 
not have been more propitious for securing remarkable pictures 
of priceless educational value. Yet such, it seemed, were the 
exigencies of our case, owing to the long delay experienced in 
the pack-ice, that the time could not be spared. 

So, hastily securing such photographs and moving-pictures 
as were possible, with a heavy heart I then impotently watched 
the bastioned rampart slowly disappear astern — one of the 
most remarkable features of the earth, to see which, and in 
the hope of illustrating it, so that others might see it too, I had 
come over more than a third of the circumference of the globe. 



CHAPTER VI 

WE LAND ON ROSS ISLAND 

The Terra Nova now headed about north-west, for the 
northern point of Ross Island. Soon after leaving the Cape 
Crozier lava cliffs on our port quarter, we passed a berg that 
had recently calved from one of the glaciers at the foot of Mt. 
Terror — to 'calve' being the geological term signifying the 
parting of a portion of a glacier from the parent body. The 
berg had grounded as it took the water, and was hard and fast. 
As we steamed past this interesting sight, I made a photograph 
which I named ' The Birth of an Iceberg.' Above the parent 
glacier's slope there were numerous conical hills of lava — 
* parasitic cones ' of the great volcano a few miles further 
inland. Near the stranded berg, there was a smooth, brown 
stretch of land — perhaps half a square mile in area — sloping 
to what appeared to the naked eye to be a shingled beach. This 
excited my curiosity, and I was just about to get my glass to 
examine it, when Wilson came along and told me that this was 
the Adelie penguin rookery. He added that the brown appear- 
ance was due to the ground being covered with guano. 

Then, through the glass I distinguished that what I 
had taken to be stones were really penguins. For half-a- 
mile the ground was moving with the creatures, which were in 
places crowded together so closely as to resemble the pebbles on 
a sea-beach. Along the shore they were leaping into and out 
of the water in such numbers that they literally poured into 
the sea in cataracts, and sprang out of it in streams. For 
hundreds of yards off shore the sea was alive with them, 
'porpoising' through the waves like dolphins; and amongst 
the multitude Killer whales, or Orcas, fiercest of all sea 

56 







K 3 



ORCA GLADIATOR 57 

mammals, rolled and spouted, as presumably they browsed 
upon them. The penguins seemed to regard these savage 
monsters with contempt. When porpoising along the surface, 
if an Orca were bearing in such a direction as to cut across 
them, they would not deviate from their course, but would 
go leaping light-heartedly along, in and out of the water, 
to within a few yards of its evil-looking dorsal fin, and then 
just dodge astern of it. Though I assume the Orca preys 
on penguins, yet I never saw one catch a penguin, nor 
have I heard of anyone who did. Whilst it may be too much 
of a gourmet to look at penguins when there is a seal to be 
had for the asking, yet I would not suspect the Orca of being 
fastidious in its diet, or of prejudices in the matter of food. 
I surmise that the real reason for the indifference of the 
penguins is that they know they are too agile for the bulky 
creature, and can easily elude its jaws. Another possible 
reason is that the Killer whale does not feed when ' going 
through its spoutings,' or breathing — for which purpose it 
comes to the surface. I warrant, however, that the penguins give 
Orca gladiator — to grant him his full scientific designation — 
the right of way and plenty of elbow-room after he has sounded. 

Could I have had but one hour ashore amongst the life 
revealed by my glass, I might have secured such moving- 
picture marvels as I hesitate to hint of, for fear of being 
suspected of exaggeration. I pressed to be allowed to have 
one of the boats for this purpose; but, though in full sympathy 
with my wishes. Captain Scott considered the danger — from the 
swell that was breaking on the beach, and of possible attacks 
from whales — was too great. 

In the whole Ross Sea region there is no more favourable 
place known than the vicinity of Cape Crozier for the study of 
Antarctic animal life. As this was one of the principal objects 
that attracted me to the South, it was tantalising to think that if 
we had been able to land and winter there I might have worked 
among those abounding zoological wonders at my leisure. 

At 8.30 p.m. we were fairly abreast of Mt. Terror, which had 
now shaken off its robe of mist, and rose, an icy cone of lava. 



58 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

many thousands of feet above the glaciers with which the lower 
slopes were covered. These glaciers descended to the sea, 
ending in precipitous cliffs of ice, which extended in an 
unbroken wall to Cape Bird. Midway between Terror and 
Erebus, Mt. Terra Nova was a beautiful sight with the midnight 
sun shining over its triple-coned summit. We encountered a 
belt of light pack here, the broken floes composing well into 
foregrounds for several camera studies. 

As we progressed, the towering mass of Erebus now began 
to rise above the glaciers; and at 11 p.m. I secured my first 
photograph of the great volcano which was to be so intimately 
associated with the next year of my life. The mountain was, 
from this northern aspect, more interesting as a study in 
vulcanology than remarkable for its beauty. I have seen many 
volcanoes in many lands, but none that so clearly showed the 
periods of its life as does Mt. Erebus, from the north. The 
ancient outer crater, a more recent inner crater, and the 
present active cone were all clearly defined. 

At 1 a.m. we rounded Cape Bird — a forbidding-looking 
promontory of black lava — ^and entered McMurdo Sound. 
Erebus now came full into view, presenting a well-balanced 
contour, with the active, snow-covered cone plumb in the 
centre of the mountain mass, and the ice-fringed lava skirts of 
the old, outer crater falling wide on every side. It was a most 
beautiful and impressive scene. 

The midnight sun was shining with such brilliance that I 
was able to make focal-plane photographic exposures with an 
aperture of F 11, using a Zeiss Protar lens of 16 inches focus, 
with a K 3 colour screen in conjunction with an orthochro- 
matic plate. With this combination I secured correctly exposed 
negatives, with my 7X5 reflex camera — such was the brilliancy 
of the light at midnight. 

All that night we steamed leisurely along, carefully 
scrutinising the land, and about 5 a.m. we were passing through 
loose pack off Cape Royds, where Sir Ernest Shackleton's 
1907 Expedition wintered. Through my glass I could see the 
little hut, nestling in a valley amidst the surrounding volcanic 




BIRTH OF AN ICEBERG. 




CAPE BIRD AND MT. EREBUS. 



58] 



It 



MOUNT EREBUS 50 

hills, where, in the heart of this godforsaken wilderness of ice 
and lava, some of our fellow adventurers had lived and done 
magnificent work two years before. Deep feelings were 
inspired by the sight of this lone dwelling-place in these ghastly, 
uninhabited solitudes; and I resolved that this should be the 
Mecca to which I would make a pilgrimage as soon as chance 
permitted. 

Having now been watching and working with my cameras 
for twenty-four consecutive hours, I turned in for an hour's 
sleep. When I awoke there was a strange silence, proclaiming 
that the engine had stopped. Hurrying on deck, I found that 
the ship was made fast to a great sheet of ice which extended 
to the shore, a mile-and-a-half away. The day was calm and 
bright and warm — the temperature being but a few degrees 
below the freezing-point — and around me lay a panorama of 
such austere and desolate grandeur as I had never hitherto seen. 

Eastwards, over the frozen sea, in which half-a-dozen 
weathered bergs were imprisoned, a crenellated ice-cliff rose 
abruptly for a hundred feet or more of height, and extended 
northward for several miles. It was the face of the Barne 
Glacier. Over this formidable rampart there were miles of 
icy slopes, above which Erebus, the King of the mountains of 
the South, monarch of all he surveyed, sat enthroned in all his 
majesty of 13,500 feet of height, spreading his robes far and 
wide around, reminding me somewhat of the Japanese Fujisan 
— the mountain by which I judge all others — only Fuji is 
much more perfect in outline and proportion. Though lacking 
in symmetry from this western aspect, there was, none the less, 
a rugged imperfection about Erebus in keeping with this 
desolate realm. 

Far away in the west a magnificent panorama of wild, 
tumultuous mountains rose in pyramidical formation out of 
the sea, their rocky scarps and snowy valleys bathed in the 
morning sun. They were the peaks of the Royal Society 
Range in South Victoria Land, and though distant nearly one 
hundred miles from where we lay, stood out so distinctly in 
the clear, brilliant light, that they seemed scarcely a dozen 



60 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

leagues away. The loftiest of these beautiful peaks was Mt. 
Lister, 13,000 feet in height. No one would dispute the right 
of this eminent name to the honour thus bestowed upon it, 
for there are few to whom science and humanity owe a 
greater debt than to Lord Lister. 

Away to the southward was a smaller cone-shaped peak, 
called Mt. Discovery; this name also was both euphonious 
and fitting. Others of the heights were Mts. Hooker^ Riicker 
and Huggins. It might seem to the uninitiated that the 
geographical nomenclature of the Antarctic was somewhat 
overburdened with such personal designations; but these were 
names of those who had been of valuable service to, or had 
taken an active part in exploration in these regions. Dr. 
Joseph Dalton Hooker was the assistant surgeon and botanist of 
the Erebus of Sir James Ross's Expedition, and became the re- 
nowned traveller, Sir Joseph Hooker. Sir William Huggins 
was, at one time. President of the Royal Society ; and Sir Arthur 
Riicker was once Honorary Secretary of the Royal Society, 

I thought, however, that personal appellations, save that of 
Lister, seemed misfits for these beautiful peaks, and felt grateful 
that Sir James Ross had not bestowed upon the two most 
famous Polar mountains the names of his friends or patrons, but 
had called them after his own two ships — Erebus and Terror. 

Next to Mt. Lister, the fairest of the above-named peaks 
is Mt. Huggins, 12,870 feet, which is not unhke the profile of 
the Aiguille Verte, as seen from Argentiere, in France. 

Captain Scott, Dr. Wilson and Lieut, Evans had gone ashore 
to prospect, and an hour later they returned greatly pleased 
with what they had seen. They reported a rocky cape with a 
gently sloping beach, in a position fairly sheltered from the 
prevailing winds, and were unanimous as to its suitability as 
a site for building our Hut. As firm unbroken ice prevented 
our further progress southwards to the end of McMurdo 
Sound, it was decided to make this place the headquarters of 
the Expedition, and the locality was named Cape Evans. 

The way ashore being good, over ice sufficiently thick to bear 
our heaviest equipment, and the weather being all that could 




I 



THE RAMPARTS OF MT. EREBUS. 




PONIES TETHERED ON THE ICE. 



60] 



UNLOADING THE SHIP 61 

possibly be desired, or that kindly fate and fortune could 
bestow, it behoved us to make the most of these fortuitous 
conditions; so everyone — officers, scientists and deck-hands 
alike — set-to with a will and began the unloading of the ship. 
The ponies were first slung out in a crib, rigged by block 
and tackle to the yard-arm, and all were soon landed safely 
on the ice. Ice was almost the natural element of these ponies. 
Coming from north-eastern Siberia, as they did, they had been 
accustomed to snow and ice for about six months of the year. 
Their amazement at finding themselves on their native 
element once more would have been comical, had it not been 
pathetic — for they were predestined to spend the rest of their 
brief existence in the South. Oates, and the Russian groom, 
Anton^ soon had them tethered to a cable anchored in the floe, 
and for hours the shaggy little fellows seemed scarcely able 
to believe their senses, and could not stop whinnying and rolling 
on the ice for joy. It certainly must have been relief beyond 
measure to them to be freed from their narrow cells and able to 
rub themselves against the hard rough snow, for they were all 
badly afflicted with horse lice, from the tortures of which they 
could now obtain some alleviation by rolling. The dogs, too, 
were in high spirits, and yelped and whined and howled with 
delight, as they pawed and scratched at, and dug their noses 
into the snow. It was all a man could do to hold them back 
as they were led one by one, or rather as they dragged their 
leaders, down the gangplank. They were chained to a rope 
extending from the ship's bow, and no sooner were they all 
' ashore ' when a company of penguins leapt on to the floe. 
Immediate pandemonium ensued, for the fierce instincts of 
the half-wild dogs were instantly aroused by the sight of any 
living creature. The penguins, nothing daunted, marched up 
to investigate the, to them, strange visitors; whilst the 
maddened dogs strained at their chains in the eft'ort to get 
at such extraordinary-looking objects. The dogs, like our- 
selves, were quite incomprehensible to the penguins, who know 
no enemies when they are out of the sea, as there are no 
land creatures to molest them. No doubt thev came forward 



62 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

to the dogs, as they always did to us, not out of curiosity only, 
but in a spirit of friendship. 

On finding their friendly advances met with hostility, 
several showed fight; but the battle was over in a moment. 
Before the little innocents could be driven off, more than one 
bleeding corpse lay on the snow ; for, as fast as, with outstretched 
flippers, they came within reach of the cruel teeth, they were 
mercilessly slaughtered. Had the dogs not been prevented by 
their chains, they would have gone off like a pack of wolves, 
hunting other prey — as indeed they always did when, later, any 
of them managed to break loose. But Meares and his 
henchman, Dimitri, were masters of these furies, and they 
quickly had a couple of teams harnessed and at work — which 
the dogs seemed to take to with delight. 

The heavy cases containing two of the motors were next 
slung out on to the ice, and unpacked. Our excellent motor 
engineer, Bernard Day, assisted by biologist Nelson, took 
them in hand, and their open exhausts were soon rattling out 
a lively tune. These motor tractors had large toothed wheels 
fore and aft, round which passed endless chains of flat plates 
fitted with diagonal cleats to grip the snow. They, so to 
speak, laid their own track as they rolled along. This is the 
caterpillar principle, since made so universally known by the 
* Tanks.' The machines were made by the Wolseley Com- 
pany. They had 14 h.p. air-cooled engines, and over a good 
surface each motor could haul a ton or more of dead weight on 
trailer sledges. All the timber for the Hut was transported 
ashore by these two tractors, as well as many tons of hay. 

The ponies were given a day's rest, but the dogs were set 
to steady work at once with light loads until they had become 
more hardened ; whilst officers and men formed teams of four, 
hauling endless sledge-loads by human muscle as well. Actuated 
by a common purpose, all worked with such good will and 
combination, thai; a constant stream of stores and equipment 
flowed from the hold of the Terra Nova to the shore ; so that 
by the evening of the first day big strides had been made in 
the unloading of the ship. 



CHAPTER VII 
SOME PHOTOGRAPHING EPISODES 

Having decided to establish winter-quarters at Cape Evans, 
Captain Scott, quick to recognise that fine weather meant every- 
thing to the success of my work, advised me that it would 
be as well to take all possible advantage of the exceptionally 
favourable weather conditions whilst the ice held, as, once it 
broke up, subjects now easily accessible would then become 
impossible of approach. I was to consider myself free to 
devote myself exclusively to my photographic work, and should 
not be expected to take any part in unloading the ship. 
Being thus freed from regulations drawn up for the observance 
of others, I worked almost ceaselessly, for there was no lack 
of subjects for my cameras. 

I had noted some fine icebergs frozen into the sea ice about a 
mile distant. The morning after our arrival, I was just about to 
start across the ice to visit these bergs, with a sledge well 
loaded with photographic apparatus, when eight Killer whales 
appeared, heading towards the ice, blowing loudly. Since first 
seeing some of these wolves of the sea off Cape Crozier I had 
been anxious to secure photographs of them. Captain Scott, 
who also saw the approaching school, called out to me to try 
and obtain a picture of them, just as I was snatching up my 
reflex camera for that purpose. The whales dived under the 
ice, so, hastily estimating where they would be likely to rise 
again, I ran to the spot — adjusting the camera as I did so. 
I had got to within six feet of the edge of the ice — which was 
about a yard thick — when, to my consternation, it suddenly 
heaved up under my feet and split into fragments around me ; 
whilst the eight whales, lined up side by side and almost 

63 



W vhmpI 



64 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

touching each other, burst up from under the ice and 
' spouted.' 

The head of one was within two yards of me. I saw its 
nostrils open, and at such close quarters the release of its pent- 
up breath was like a blast from an air-compressor. The noise 
of the eight simultaneous blows sounded terrific, and I was 
enveloped in the warm vapour of the nearest 'spout,' which 
had a strong fishy smell. Fortunately the shock sent me 
backwards, instead of precipitating me into the sea, or my 
Antarctic experiences would have ended somewhat prematurely. 

As the whales rose from under the ice, there was a loud 
' booming sound ' — to use the expression of Captain Scott, who 
was a witness of the incident — as they struck the ice with 
their backs. Immediately they had cleared it, with a rapid move- 
ment of their flukes (huge tail fins) they made a tremendous 
commotion, setting the floe on which I was now isolated rocking 
so furiously that it was all I could do to keep from falling 
into the water. Then they turned about with the deliberate 
intention of attacking me. The ship was within sixty yards, 
and I heard wild shouts of * Look out! ' ' Run! ' ' Jump, man, 
jump ! ' ' Run, quick ! ' But I could not run ; it was all I could 
do to keep my feet as I leapt from piece to piece of the rocking 
ice, with the whales a few yards behind me, snorting and 
blowing among the ice-blocks. I wondered whether I should be 
able to reach safety before the whales reached me ; and I recollect 
distinctly thinking, if they did get me, how very unpleasant 
the first bite would feel, but that it would not matter much 
about the second. 

The broken floes had already started to drift away with the 
current, and as I reached the last fragment I saw that I could 
not jump to the firm ice, for the lead was too wide. The 
whales behind me were making a horrible noise amongst the 
broken ice, and I stood for a moment hesitating what to do. 
More frantic shouts of ' Jump, man, jump ! ' reached me from 
my friends. Just then, by great good luck, the floe on which 
I stood turned slightly in the current and lessened the distance. 
I was able to leap across, not, however, a moment too soon. 



AN ADVENTURE WITH KILLER WHALES 65 

As I reached security and looked back, a huge black and tawny 
head was pushed out of the water at the spot, and rested on 
the ice, looking round with its little pig-like eyes to see what 
had become of me. The brute opened his jaws wide, and I 
saw the terrible teeth which I had so narrowly escaped. 

Thinking they might break the ice again, I ran quickly 
to my sledge, by which Captain Scott was standing. I shall 
never forget his expression as I reached it in safety. During 
the next year I saw that same look on his face several times, 
when someone was in danger. It showed how deeply he felt 
the responsibility for life, which he thought rested so largely 
on himself. He was deathly pale as he said to me : ' My God ! 
That was about the nearest squeak I ever saw ! ' 

There were two dogs tethered out on the ice near the scene 
of this incident, and we came to the conclusion that it was an 
organised attempt by the whales to get the dogs — which they 
had doubtless taken for seals — into the water. I had happened 
on the scene at an inopportune moment, and I have no doubt 
they looked upon me as fair game as well. 

Captain Scott, at the end of his description of this incident 
in his Journal, stated: 

* One after the other their huge hideous heads shot vertically 
into the air through the cracks that they had made. As they 
reared them to a height of 6 or 8 feet it was possible to see 
their tawny head markings, their small glistening eyes and their 
terrible array of teeth — ^by far the largest and most terrifying 
in the world. There cannot be a doubt that they looked up 
to see what had happened to Pouting and the dogs. The 
latter were horribly frightened, and strained at their chains, 
whining; the head of one Killer must certainly have been 
within five feet of one of the dogs. After this, whether they 
thought the game insignificant, or whether they missed Pouting 
is uncertain [^ but the terrifying creatures passed on to other 
hunting grounds and we were able to rescue the dogs. 
_ *Of course we have known well that Killer whales con- 
tinually skirt the edge of the floes, and that they would 
undoubtedly snap up anyone who was unfortunate enough to 
5 



66 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

fall into the water; but the fact that they could display such 
deliberate cunning, that they were able to break ice of such 
thickness (at least 2>^ feet) , and that they could act in unison, 
was a revelation to us. It is clear that they are endowed 
with singular intelligence, and in future we shall treat that 
Intelligence with every respect.' 

This incident certainly inspired me with a wholesome respect 
for these devils of the sea, and I never took any chances with 
them afterwards. 

The picture which illustrates this adventure is not, of course, 
a photograph ; but it gives a very good idea of the locality and 
of what actually happened. It has been drawn from my own 
description of the incident; from that of Captain Scott; from 
my photographs of the surrounding landmarks, and from 
personal study by the artist of models of Killer whales, in the 
Natural History Museum at South Kensington. 

The next day, just as I was about to leave the ship to visit 
the bergs, a school of Ore as again appeared, heading for the 
ship in close formation. I leant over the poop rail, with my 
eyes deep in the hood of my large reflex camera, waiting fot 
the whales to draw nearer, when, as I was about to release the 
shutter, the view disappeared from the finder, and light flooded 
the camera; at the same moment I heard something splash in 
the water. On examining the camera, what was my con- 
sternation to find that the lens-board had dropped into the sea, 
carrying with it the finest lens of my collection — a nine-inch 
Zeiss double protar, worth about £25, which had been presented 
to me some years ago by the Bausch and Lomb Optical 
Company of Rochester, U.S.A. This was a serious loss, as 
the lens was not only my favourite on account of its superb 
qualities, but I had used it in many foreign lands, and therefore 
regarded it with affection. I had none other capable of com- 
pletely taking its place, and all my subsequent scenic work was 
done with other and less suitable objectives. 

I retailed the story of the loss of the lens — ^which now lies 
in a watery grave, 200 fathoms deep, at the bottom of McMurdo 
Sound — in a letter to the makers, which was duly posted on 



A WONDERFUL GROTTO 67 

the return of the ship to New Zealand. When the Terra 
Nova came to relieve us next year, there was a parcel for me 
containing a replica of the instrument, and a letter from this 
courteous firm, requesting that I would accept the new lens 
as a substitute. 

The continued glorious fine weather which at this time we 
experienced, though a godsend to us all, had on me rather 
an exhausting effect, for as long as it lasted I was loath to 
take rest. I knew that at any hour it might end, a storm arise, 
and the sea-ice break up; then there would be an end to my 
chances of getting any pictures of the stranded icebergs, and 
other features of our surroundings. 

The sun at this season is nearly as high in these regions 
at midnight as at midday, so if the light was not right on a 
subject at noon, the chances were that it would be twelve 
hours later. For the first four nights I scarcely slept at all, 
as this continuous daylight was too novel and too wonderful 
to permit of sleep; it seemed waste of precious time to lose 
one single hour. I determined that lost opportunities should 
be as few as human endurance would permit. Afterwards I 
had cause for congratulation that neither time nor chances had 
been wasted, for the ice was rapidly decaying, and five days 
later it was so rotten round the stranded bergs that I was no 
longer able to approach them. 

In one of these bergs there was a grotto. This, I decided, 
should be the object of my first excursion. It was about a 
mile from the ship, and though a lot of rough and broken ice 
surrounded it, I was able to get right up to it. A fringe of 
long icicles hung at the entrance of the grotto, and passing 
under these I was in the most wonderful place imaginable. 
From outside, the interior appeared quite white and colourless, 
but, once inside, it was a lovely symphony of blue and green. I 
made many photographs in this remarkable place — than which 
I secured none more beautiful the entire time I was in the 
South. By almost incredible good luck the entrance to the 
cavern framed a fine view of the Terra Nova lying at the 
ice-foot, a mile away. 



68 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

During this first and subsequent visits, I found that the 
colouring of the grotto changed with the position of the sun; 
thus, sometimes green would predominate, then blue, and then 
again it was a delicate lilac. When the sun passed round to 
the west — opposite the entrance to the cavern — the beams that 
streamed in were reflected by myriads of crystals, which 
decomposed the rays into lovely prismatic hues, so that the walls 
appeared to be studded with gems. Curiously enough, this 
wonderful effect was only to be obtained when wearing non- 
actinic goggles. The place then became a veritable Aladdin's 
Cave of beauty. I was loath to leave it all; but after having 
made sure of my pictures, I hurried back to persuade Captain 
Scott to come and see the sight, which he did, and was as 
delighted as I was with its wonders. Uncle Bill came too, and 
made some sketches. 

The cavern was about forty yards in length, and it had been 
formed by the berg turning partially over and carrying an ice- 
floe upwards, about eight feet thick, which had frozen into its 
present position. The difference of structure of the floe-ice on 
one side of the cavern, and the berg-ice on the other was very 
marked. It was great good fortune that I had been able to get 
the picture showing the ship framed by the grotto's entrance ; a 
few hours later the berg had swung round many degrees in the 
current, and the ship was no longer to be seen from within. 

Taylor and Wright came out to investigate the phenomenon 
in the afternoon, and with ice-axes cut steps up the floe that 
formed the outer part of the tunnel, whilst I kinematographed 
the Alpine feat. It made an excellent film. Then we all explored 
the cave, which closed up rapidly towards the further end. 
After squeezing through a passage with a ' Fat Man's Misery ' 
in it, and climbing through a narrow sloping tunnel, we found 
ourselves high in the open air, near the summit of the berg. 
As we emerged, Wright had a slip and narrowly escaped falling 
into the water, fifty feet below. Fortunately he managed to 
regain his footing — ^thereby depriving a Killer whale, which 
immediately afterwards spouted in the pool, of a change of 
diet for lunch. 




A GROTTO IN AN ICEBERG. 



68] 



r 



TREACHEROUS ICE 69 

This pool was a most alluring feature of the vicinity, and 
its beauties were perpetuated in many pictures. When 
unruffled by the breeze, it was a faithful mirror of the sky, 
and penguins were continually leaping out of it, to rest awhile 
or roost on the ice. They took little or no notice of me as I 
made my photographs. Whilst I was engaged on one of them, 
I heard a sound behind me, and on looking round I saw a Killer 
whale — with open jaws, and eight feet of its length out of 
water — leaning on the ice, surveying me with interest. I didn't 
wait to pack my things. I almost threw them on to the sledge, 
and pulled off to a safer distance from the water — half 
expecting, as I did so, to feel the brute burst the ice under me, 
as I knew it was not very thick hereabouts. 

When the temperature was comparatively high, the currents 
rapidly eroded the ice away underneath, whilst the appearance 
of the surface changed little. One might be walking along 
on sound ice ; then suddenly tread on a place where it was not 
an inch thick. One had to feel one's way carefully along, when 
in doubt, by testing it with a ski-stick. In places the current 
ran swiftly below, and it was not a pleasant feeling when my 
legs went through ; it made me think how hopeless would be my 
plight if I went through to the shoulders, and help were not at 
hand; but such incidents as a leg going through soon became 
so frequent that they ceased to have the thrill of novelty. I 
always threw myself flat when I felt the ice giving way under- 
foot, and I think it saved me a wetting, at least, more than 
once. Now, I shudder at the risks I took so recklessly in those 
first days, not realising the imminence of the dangers which, a 
week later, experience had taught me to hold in greater respect. 

During those midnight days, when others slept and only 
the night watch and I were awake, some of the most memorable 
of my Antarctic experiences befell me. It was in those 
* night ' hours, too, as the sun paraded round the southern 
heavens, that I secured some of the best of my Polar studies. 
One of these was ' The Death of an Iceberg ' — which represents 
a berg in the last stage of decay, from the action of the sun and 
currents. This picture always recalls to me one of the most 



70 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

dismaying episodes of my life. The adventure with the Killer 
whales had been exciting enough; I had relished the thrill of 
it. But there was nothing either pleasurable or thrilling about 
the incident which occurred previous to the taking of this 
photograph. 

There was not so much as a zephyr astir, and the * mercury ' 
stood only a few degrees below the freezing-point, as I 
started off once more to the bergs that were such a paradise 
for my work. No sound broke the stillness of the nightless 
night, save the occasional squawk of a penguin, or the blowing 
of a whale, perhaps half-a-dozen miles away. 

As I neared the bergs, I was perspiring freely from the 
effort of dragging my sledge; and the yellow goggles, which 
I wore as protection against snow blindness, became clouded 
over, so that I could not see. I was just about to stop to 
wipe them, when I felt the ice sinking under me. I could not 
see a yard ahead because of my clouded goggles, but I felt 
the water wet my feet, and I heard a soft hissing sound as 
the ice gave way around me. I realised instantly that if the 
heavy sledge, to which I was harnessed, broke through, it 
would sink like a stone, dragging me down with it. For a 
moment the impulse was to save myself, by slipping out of the 
harness, at the expense of all my apparatus. But I went to 
the frozen South to illustrate its wonders, and without my 
cameras I was helpless. At all costs, therefore, my precious 
kit should be saved. I would save it, or go down with it. We 
would survive or sink together. 

A flood of thought rushed through my brain in those fateful 
moments. I seemed to visualise the two hundred fathoms of 
water below me, infested with those devils, and wondered how 
long it would take the sledge to drag me to the bottom. Would 
I drown, or would an Orca snap me up before I got there? 

Though the ice sank under my feet, it did not break; but 
each step I expected to be my last. The sledge, dragging 
through the slush, became like lead ; and as the water rose above 
my boots, I was unable to pull it further. Just then, with 
perspiration dripping from every pore, I felt my feet touch 



f 



THE KILLER AGAIN 71 

firm ice. With one supreme, final effort, which sapped the 
last ounce of strength that was left, I got on to it, and managed 
to drag the sledge on to it too; then I collapsed. I was so 
completely exhausted that it was quite a long time before my 
trembling muscles ceased to quake. When finally my knees 
would hold me up, I took the photograph. 

In adventure one never takes anything too seriously. It is 
strange how quickly incidents of peril are relegated to the limbo 
of the past. The moment such episodes are over — no matter 
how imminently life itself may have been at stake — ^they become 
mere reminiscences, to be cast aside, and perhaps seldom or 
never referred to again, until the pen searches them out from 
the treasure-house of memory. 

Having taken the desired photograph, and recorded a very 
beautiful Polar scene, I lay down on the ice — at the edge of the 
pool where the reflections appear in the picture — to peer into 
the profundity that I had so nearly become more intimately 
acquainted with. A great shaft of sunlight pierced the depths 
like a searchlight, and, by shading my eyes, with my head close 
to the water, I could see a hundred feet down into the sea, 
which was all alive with minute creatures. As I watched, a 
slim, silvery fish darted by, and then a seal rushed into the 
field of view, from the surrounding blackness — not in pursuit 
of the fish, but fleeing in evident terror. The cause of its 
terror immediately appeared. The horror hove into view 
without apparent effort, looking like some grim leviathan of 
war — 2l submarine; and a thing of war it really was for the 
seal. It was the dreaded Killer again, in close pursuit of its 
prey. It came so close to me that I could distinctly see the 
evil gleam in its eye, and the whole outline of its sleek and 
sinister shape. For a single second I lay, transfixed with 
interest at the sight. Then I remembered, and hurried to a 
safer place. 



i^ 



CHAPTER VIII 

WE COMPLETE OUR WINTER-QUARTERS 

For several days after our arrival scarcely a ripple disturbed the 
surface of the sea. The Term Nova was wonderfully 
picturesque as she lay berthed alongside the ice; she was of a 
type nowadays seldom met with on the seas, and her square- 
rigged masts and rugged hull, mirrored in the water, lent great 
effect to my pictures. Ever and anon great billowy cumulus 
clouds would roll up in the heavens, and with almost every 
changing aspect I felt constrained to get my camera bearing 
on a fresh impression of the old rover. One day a small 
iceberg bore towards her, scraping along the icefoot until its 
further progress was arrested not a^hundred yards away. This 
berg was all a-hanging with icicles, from the warmth of the 
sun, and it compose.d with the ship to add a treasured page to 
my now rapidly growing album. 

Up to the present time I had not visited the shore, as there 
had been too much to be done in the vicinity of the ship and 
the bergs, and the shore could wait; but now I loaded up my 
sledge and made my first excursion there. I did not find it an 
interesting locality, and it was plain that my sphere of opera- 
tions would be reduced to very narrow and unlovely limits when 
the sea-ice broke up ; I devoutly hoped it would hold for some 
time yet. The whole peninsula was of black volcanic rock — 
Kenyte, our geologists called it. It was not unlike the clinkers 
of a smelter dump, but very brittle, and full of crystals. 
Except for a few small glacier formations, the ground was 
entirely free from ice, and the winter snow had been melted 

72 




THE 'TERRA NOVA' AT THE ICE-FOOT. 



72] 



FIRST VISIT ASHORE 73 

by the heat absorbed by the black lava rocks from the rays of 
the summer sun, though the temperature was several degrees 
below freezing. 

The site of our future home was an almost level space 
amidst this lava, just above high-water mark, and well sheltered 
by low hills from the prevaiHng south-easterly wmds. Mt. 
Erebus towered into the skies a few miles to the east ; and 
the impregnable ramparts of the Barne Glacier, which fringe 
the skirt of the volcano, pushed a couple of miles northward 
towards Cape Royds. The bay, formed by this glacier and 
our promontory, was covered with ice which might any day 
break up and float out to sea. For a hundred yards along 
the shore the beach was everywhere scattered with stores, 
which were being rapidly got into some kind of order under 
the supervision of Lieut. Bowers, whom Captain Scott had 
placed in charge of the commissariat. From the hour we 
landed, this capable young officer became the Leader's right 
hand in everything connected with the stores; though his old 
friend and comrade of Discovery days. Dr. Wilson, was then, 
as always, his fidus Achates in all matters relating to the 
primary objects of the Expedition. 

Rapid progress had been made in the building of the Hut. 
All the scantling had been numbered in sections, and the whole 
of the framework had been put together carefully before leaving 
London, in order to ensure that everything fitted. The match- 
boarding, too, had all been cut to the correct length, in readi- 
ness for nailing to the framework, and the work of fixing 
it in place was already well in hand. Tents had been erected 
as sleeping-quarters for those who were now living ashore. 

On wandering further afield, I found a remarkable pheno- 
menon for these latitudes — a cascade of running water, which 
owed its existence to three causes : the exceptionally fine 
weather ; the fact that the ' mercury ' was only a few degrees 
below the freezing-point, and to the heat of the sun radiated 
by the black rocks, which were warm to the touch. The 
melting snow water was caught in hollows in the hills, forming 
ponds, one of which we named Skua Lake, because of the 



74 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

numbers of skua-gulls that bathed and gambolled in it. It was 
the overflow from this lake that formed the cascade, and its 
water was perfectly fresh. This waterfall was destined soon 
to be hushed by the resistless grip of Jack Frost. 

A little company of Adelie penguins were paying our camp 
a visit. They strolled about, for all the world like a party 
of tourists taking in the sights. I was glad to notice that my 
camera came in for a share of their interest, and was deservedly 
examined and discussed. Some of the ship's officers started a 
game with them, and endeavoured to catch them ; but they were 
far too wary, and easily avoided capture. The agility they 
exhibited when necessary was amazing. 

As I should have ample opportunities for further investi- 
gating our surroundings later, I thought it as well to get out 
on to the ice again. On rounding the cape, I found Dr. Wilson 
at work skinning Weddell seals. It was gratifying to know 
that animals providing such excellent food frequented the 
locality. There were usually plenty of seals lying in the lee of 
the icebergs, where they would sometimes sleep for days on end. 
Our zoologist, more intent on securing skins for specimens 
than meat for the larder, would sally forth on his mission 
armed with a pick-handle, and a murderous-looking hunting 
knife, which had a roughened horn-handled grip with a guard 
to prevent the hand from slipping, and a slender blade some 
fifteen inches long. Approaching the unsuspecting victim, he 
would stun it with a blow of the pick-handle ; then, as the floppy 
creature rolled over, exposing its quivering belly, the lethal 
steel would slide between its ribs, and, finding the heart, a 
steaming geyser would spout from the wound, dyeing the snow 
deep crimson. Before the carcase began to stiffen — ^as it does 
rapidly in a freezing temperature — he would strip it of its 
covering; if this were delayed too long the carcase would 
freeze, and skinning be rendered quite impossible. Then he 
would sling the heavy pelt across a device called a ' flensing 
table,' a sloping board held in place by two supports, on which 
he would quickly cut the blubber from the hide— the blubber 
being a blanket of fat, from two to three inches thick, lying 




WEDDELL SEALS AT CAPE EVANS. 




FUN WITH THE PENGUINS. 



74] 



A SKI-ING FEAT 75 

between the skin and the flesh. Blubber as food is a taste 
that takes a good deal of acquiring ; but it makes excellent fuel. 
Then I met the Norwegian, Gran, out on the ice. He had 
been putting in some strenuous work in a man-hauling team, 
pulling heavy loads, and was now having an hour or two * off ' 
to keep his hand in, or rather his feet in, with his ski. He told 
me he was going to ascend the Barne Glacier, and ski down 
a long slope that he pointed out to me. He pressed me to 
come and kinematograph the feat; but I declined, as I con- 
sidered it was too dangerous an experiment to try on such an 
enterprise as this, where any accideijt might seriously hamper 
our programme. He ridiculed the idea of danger with such 
scorn, however, that I finally consented to accompany him, after 
exacting from him a promise that he would not expose himself 
to any unnecessary risk. We duly arrived at the spot he had 
selected^^ — a long slope of ice, covered with snow, leading to 
the top of the glacier, which was at this point about two hundred 
feet in height. Gran then explained that he would ascend by 
an easy incline, and that it was his intention to ski down a 
very much steeper place, which he pointed out ; I therefore took 
up my position on the sea-ice a slight distance beyond the 
proposed terminus of the course, and waited. 

Our ski expert then laboriously 'herring-boned' up the 
slope, and, having reached the summit, shouted to me that he 
was about to descend; I thereupon began to take the picture. 
He swept like a meteor towards the edge of the cliff; and I 
drew my breath sharply as he seemed about to precipitate 
himself into space. But with consummate skill he turned 
about, almost on the overhanging cornice itself, and then, in 
a wild swoop, described a great curve to the other side of the 
slope, which was nearly a hundred j^ards in width. Turning 
about once more, with arms outstretched and knees well 
together, he then came straight for the camera, down the 
steepest part of the slide, at something approaching a mile a 
mmute, until he encountered the change of surface as he 
struck the sea-ice — when he suddenly ascended, or was pro- 
jected, five yards upwards. There was an impression of 



..iU 



76 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

revolving arms and legs ; of a spinning catherine-wheel in the 
air; of ski flying off at a tangent; a thud and — silence! Not 
knowing whether this spectacular manoeuvre was part of the 
performance, or unpremeditated — ^as Gran had foretold nothing 
of so dramatic a nature — I went on turning the handle of the 
camera for a few seconds; but becoming alarmed at his not 
moving, I ran to see if he was hurt. For a long time he lay- 
ghastly white and motionless; then, to my great relief, his 
eyes opened and he slowly came-to. He was badly blown and 
very sore ; but there were no bones broken, and, after recovering 
his wind by a good rest, he managed to limp home. He told 
me that it was part of the training of a ski-runner to know 
how to fall, when a fall was unavoidable, with the minimum 
risk to limb. Hence, when he found a spill was inevitable, 
he had let all the muscles of his body and limbs relax and 
become limp, and had thus saved himself from serious hurt. 
Even so, he had had a nasty shock, and felt the effects of it 
for some months afterwards; but in the end he was none the 
worse for the experience. 

The work of unloading the ship was going on merrily, and 
there was now a clearly defined trail on the ice from the ship 
to the shore. This trail was well beaded with sledges at 
intervals, either coming from or returning to the ship, all 
returning sledges carrying loads of kenyte rock, for ballast to 
replace some of the weight we were taking from the hold. The 
ponies were now working well, with two obstreperous excep- 
tions : one, Christopher — a. vicious little beggar who persistently 
refused to work, and tried his best to kill anyone who came 
near him — was being disciplined by Captain Oates; and 
another, Hackenschmidt, was living up to his sporting name 
by having a bout with his driver, Captain Scott, every hundred 
yards. It was wonderful how well the work was going, but 
I noticed signs of deterioration in the ice, which was sodden in 
places, showing that it was rotting underneath. 

The third, and last, of the three motor tractors was now 
slung overboard from the yard-arm, and a dozen pairs of 
arms started to haul it well away from the ship before starting 



WE LOSE ONE OF THE MOTORS 77 

up the engine; when, to the consternation of all, the ice sank 
under its weight, and the machine disappeared. Frantic efforts 
were made to save it, but as the sinking motor broke the ice back 
to those who were hanging on to the ropes, they had to let go. 
Petty Officer Williamson was dragged into the water up to his 
armpits, and the current immediately swung his legs away; but 
he was quickly pulled out of danger by his comrades. 

This accident to our transport equipment was considered a 
grave calamity at the time ; but as we became better acquainted 
with the two surviving motors and their habits, we regarded 
this incident in retrospect with less regret. Some even deemed 
it a stroke of luck; whilst others went so far as to bemoan 
the fact that the other two had not sunk as well. My own 
feeling in the matter was strictly neutral, as I must give the 
two motors that were left credit for doing a good deal of 
heavy work in the earlier stages of the adventure, and for 
providing some excellent subjects for my films — even if, later, 
their principal achievement was to provoke remarks for which 
there may be pangs of regret when Gabriel blows his horn. 

I now decided to get some of my gear ashore, and made 
several lone trips, hauling some hundreds of pounds of photo- 
graphic and dark-room equipment, and my personal belongings, 
on a sledge. I fixed up a tent for my sleeping-quarters; but 
so warm was the sun that night, even at midnight, that I 
spread my reindeer-skin sleeping-bag on the ground in the 
open air. The warmth of the bag compelled me to keep my 
head out, and then the brilliant sunlight and the discordant cries 
of the skua-gulls, which swarmed about our camp, made sleep 
wellnigh impossible; so I had to retreat to the stuffy tent 
after all, for shelter from the sun. 

The climate of these regions in fine summer weather is 
magically invigorating, and though the temperature of the air 
was below freezing, the heat absorbed from the sun by the 
black lava made the ground quite warm. By 'ground' it 
must not, however, be inferred that I mean mould, or other 
earthy matter. There is no soil anywhere on Ross Island. 
The whole island is volcanic rock, ice and lava. The nearest 



78 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

approach to earth, in the agricultural sense, is sterile volcanic 
detritus and sand, eroded from the rocks by the weathering 
process of the frost, and by the wind which is almost 
incessant for a great part of the year. Since our arrival we 
had, so far, experienced almost complete freedom from wind ; 
but though it was now the height of svmimer, we knew that, 
even so, we might consider ourselves favoured of the gods for 
the smiles that Fortune had bestowed upon us. 

The next day, the sixth after our arrival, this fine weather 
showed signs of breaking up. During the morning I had been 
ashore helping the carpenters at work on the Hut, and early 
in the afternoon had started back for the ship, when the wind 
veered round to the south-east, and with the change of direction 
the whole summit of Erebus became hidden by driving scud. 
I had read in ' The Voyage of the Discovery ' how quickly 
blizzards worked up and swept these Antarctic wildernesses, 
and that members of the 1901-4 expedition had lost their way 
in snowstorms within hailing distance of help; so that it was 
found necessary to rig a life-line for guidance between the ship 
and the shore. In their case, the disitance was less than half 
of that which lay before me; and as I looked back at the 
lowering heavens and then at the mile of featureless and now 
deserted ice, I realised that there was little to guide one if 
the track became obliterated. The threatened storm did not 
break, however, until some hours later. It continued until the 
evening of the next day, and whilst it lasted the air was so 
full of finely powdered snow — which was driven like thick mist 
before the wind — that one could see nothing a few yards distant. 

The morning after the blizzard broke fine and clear. Having 
established myself ashore,, I was free to work at either end 
of the trail, and therefore alternated between the ship and 
the shore for sleep. The vicinity of the ship was to me the 
more attractive locality; I knew that ere long there would be 
no alternative to the shore, as the ice might go out any day. 
The view of Erebus was foreshortened from the Hut, but from 
the ship it was very fine, and was always changing as the light 
illumined the mountain from different aspects. There was 



I 



THE FIRST COLD SNAP 79 

neither rising nor setting of the sun. Day and night the orb 
meandered round the heavens, in the morning shining against 
the mountain, throwing it into silhouette ; whilst in the evening 
the whole great mountain mass and its leagues of glaciers 
reflected the full brilliance of the rays, and was dazzling to 
behold. The crater now began to show signs of considerable 
activity, a trail of smoke streaming from the summit for miles 
away to the south-east, until it was lost behind the rise of the 
glaciers. A volcano in any land is always interesting ; but few 
are more so than the great fire-mountain amidst these desolate 
wastes of eternal ice. 

Hut Point, a promontory near the end of the Sound, was 
the headquarters of the Discovery Expedition. Captain Scott, 
anxious to renew old associations there, set out one day across 
the frozen sea to cover the intervening fifteen miles by dog- 
team, accompanied by Meares. On reaching the old hut, after 
sundry checks, due to streaks of open water which had to be 
circumvented, they found it perfectly sound and undamaged; 
but on endeavouring to enter, to their dismay the interior was 
nearly filled with hard frozen snow, blown in through a 
window which imfortunately had been left open by some 
member of the Shackleton Expedition, who had used the building 
for shelter. This necessitated some weeks of hard labour with 
pick and shovel by several men later on, as this hut was of the 
utmost importance in connection with our own operations. 
Captain Scott returned from the journey much depressed 
over the thoughtlessness of those who had entailed this labour 
upon us. 

We now had several breaks in the fine weather, and ten 
days after our arrival a cold snap gave us some idea of 
what we might henceforth expect. The temperature fell 
to zero, and it was intensely cold in the ship ; even the water in 
the unused boiler froze. We had also snow and bitter winds ; but 
these conditions alternated with sunny days for several weeks. 

All the shore party, with the exception of myself, had now 
taken up their abode in the Hut ashore ; but I still spent much 
time on the ship. The sea had been making rapid inroads into 



80 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

the ice of late, and one night a heavy swell came up from the 
north, causing the Terra Nova to bump heavily against the floe. 
The engine room staff worked anxiously to get up steam and 
put to sea, for, with a stiff north wind rising rapidly and 
thick ice close under our lee, the ship was not in a happy 
situation. As soon as steam was raised she put out into the 
Sound. The next afternoon, as she came up to the ice again, 
we found that a large tabular berg had borne down upon our 
old position, and had run aground where the ship had yesterday 
been berthed. We heard from our friends that this berg had 
sailed in soon after we departed. Had the ship not steamed 
out when she did, the berg would probably have wrecked her. 
In manoeuvring for a fresh position, the Terra Nova ran 
on to a rock. I was in my lab' at the time, and the jar was 
sufficient to make me stagger. She was firmly held by the 
forefoot, and reversing the engines failed to back her off. All 
hands were piped to lighten her for'ard; and for a couple of 
hours everyone aboard worked like slaves, piling heavy bales 
of hay and sacks of fodder on the poop, so as to lift her bow. 
But this expedient not availing, Lieut. Pennell, who. was now 
in command, decided to try the experiment of ' rolling ship.' 
All hands were marshalled on one side of the waist, and 
then ran to the other, and at given periods ran back and 
forth in the endeavour to rock her loose, the engines going full 
speed astern the while. This experiment was effective at 
last, and with thankful hearts we felt her slide off the ledge 
and ride easily on the waves. Whilst we were in this un- 
pleasant fi;x, a crew came off from the shore in the whale boat 
to offer help; but they could not get alongside owing to the 
swell, and, as it proved, their services were not needed. 
This accident, which would have made a hole sufficient to sink 
an iron vessel, meant nothing to the sturdy Terra Nova. 
When she was dry-docked on her return to New Zealand, it 
was found that a furrow, a foot deep and several yards long, 
had been gouged into her bottom; but she did not spring an 
additional ounce of water, of such massive timbers was the 
ship constructed. 



I 



THE SEA-ICE GOES OUT SI 

One day Captain Scott had accompanied me to see about 
photographing a heavy cornice which hung from the 
Barne Glacier, with icicles depending therefrom. But I could 
not do the work at that time, as the light was not right ; the 
sun was shining full on to the face of the glacier, which for 
ice photography is useless. One must work half against the 
light to get correct effects of shadow ; I should, therefore, have 
to return some morning. The cornice was a heavy one : there 
must have been many tons of overhanging ice, and I saw 
that there would be a fine picture to be made if I could get my 
camera behind the icicles, and photograph through them. But 
I considered the danger too great, as there was a large crack 
in the cornice, and I feared that any movement might precipitate 
the avalanche which, to me, appeared imminent. I know how 
the Swiss guides respect overhanging cornices, especially when 
there are cracks in them. Three years previously, with two 
guides and two porters, I had narrowly escaped being buried 
in a falling cornice on the Eiger, so I hesitated to take the 
risk. Scott, however, scouted the idea of risk, saying that 
the cornice might last for months. 

We returned home without securing any photographs. Two 
days later, I proceeded to visit the place again, accompanied 
by a shipmate. There were neither icicles nor cornice to be 
seen; instead there was a mass of hundreds of tons of debris 
where the avalanche had fallen. 

As I announced my intention to do some camera work 
further along the glacier the next day, my companion suggested 
leaving the sledge and apparatus on the sea-ice, where we were, 
as we were both very tired. But tired as I was, I decided 
the sledge must be pulled home to certain safety. I had 
cause to congratulate myself that I had adopted this prudent 
course, for, the next morning, to my amazement I no longer 
looked out on to a vast expanse of ice, but the blue sea ! The 
entire sea-ice north of the cape, instead of gradually breaking 
up, had gone out during the night en bloc — a mass several 
miles in area. 

Many a time I found, whilst in the South, that such travel- 
begotten discretion was not a bad asset in these latitudes. 



CHAPTER IX 

EXPLORING OPERATIONS COMMENCE 

Since the completion of the Hut, most of the Shore Party 
had been busy getting sledges into order, and preparing pro- 
visions, pony fodder and various gear for the southern depot- 
laying journey. 

The day fixed for the departure of the Southern Party was 
January 25th, 1911 ; but as the ice was breaking up rapidly the 
start was advanced a day. On January 24th, eleven men with 
eight ponies and two dog-teams set out from Cape Evans 
across the sea-ice for Glacier Tongue, where Captain Scott with 
more dogs would meet them, going thence by the Terra Nova. 

The value of that single day gained was realised when we 
found that most of the ice between Cape Evans and Glacier 
Tongue broke up within twenty-four hours. Thus, had the 
start not been made on the 24th, the operations of the Expedi- 
tion would have been delayed for one year; for we could not 
have got the ponies on to the ship again, and there was no way 
of getting them to Glacier Tongue by land; almost the entire 
coast is a region of impassable glaciers that fall from Mt. 
Erebus. 

I went in the ship to the Tongue — a peninsula of ice, ten to 
one hundred feet in height, which jutted out into the sea for 
some five miles. It was a mile wide at the coastal end, whilst 
it tapered to less than half a mile in width at the snout. Glacier 
Tongue is one of the mysteries of the Far South. It is a relic 
of the ancient ice-sheet which originally covered the whole of 
McMurdo Sound; but it is remarkable that a narrow strip of 
the Barrier ice should liave remained floating in such a stormy 
arm of the sea for years after the rest of that part of the Polar 

82 




THE HUT— AFTER THE SEA-ICE WENT OUT. 



S2] 



THE SOUTHERN PARTY AWAY 83 

ice-cap, which formerly filled the Sound, had disappeared. It 
was all the more surprising when we found that the glacier was 
networked with deep crevasses. The only rational explanation 
of the phenomenon is that it is held by some shoal or reef. 

The Terra Nova berthed alongside this natural wharf, and 
in due course the ponies arrived, having thus safely accom- 
plished about half of the journey to Hut Point. 

On the south side of the glacier there was a crack in the 
sea-ice, several yards in width and filled with frozen slush. As 
the ponies were conducted out on to the floe, the first two 
negotiated this place safely, strugghng through the heavy slush 
and across to the firm ice well enough. The third was less 
fortunate; his leader, instead of taking him across a fresh 
place, followed the preceding two, with the result that the 
frightened animal got stuck, plunged, and then broke through. 
Fortunately, though his body was submerged, he kept his fore- 
legs and head above the icy bog. We managed to get ropes 
round him and hauled him out ; but he had experienced a very 
uncomfortable ten minutes, and was a pitiable object until he 
had been warmed by vigorous rubbing and a run on firmer 
footing. The other ponies were taken to a safer place, and 
got across without further mishap. 

Though exhibiting signs of decay, the ice was holding well 
south of the Glacier Tongue, so for the next two days all the 
party were hard at work transporting some tons of fodder, 
dog biscuit and supplies, to the Great Ice Barrier edge at the 
south-east end of Ross Island, where the * Southern Road ' 
begins. These supplies were to be depoted at intervals along 
the route that the Pole party would take next year — as far as 
it was found possible to transport them ere the winter set in. 

Here I must leave the Southern Party, as my work now lay 
in other directions. After discussing matters with Captain 
Scott, I had decided to abandon my original arrangement to go 
with the Western Geological Party, and to work instead in 
the neighbourhood of Cape Evans and Cape Royds for the 
remainder of the summer. The western journey would not 
have enabled me to take my own time over my work, and photo- 



84 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

graphy in these regions is too important and difficult to be done 
in haste. Moreover, I should not have been able to take my 
heavy kinematograph apparatus and equipment, and Captain 
Scott was in complete accord with me as to the desirability of 
securing typical scenery and animal life records, rather than 
geological details, which Debenham, the most painstaking of 
my pupils, was fairly competent to deal with. 

The Terra Nova remained at Glacier Tongue for two days, 
until our friends had removed all their supplies from where 
they had temporarily depoted them on the ice, to Hut Point. 
During this time the weather could not' have been more 
favourable to our plans ; the sun shone from an almost cloudless 
sky, and there was no wind. Biologist Lillie, who never missed 
an opportunity to procure specimens from the deep, got busy 
with his nets, and he secured many prizes. The rarest of all 
his finds were some catches of Cephalodiscus, which are colonies 
of minute creatures that live in semi-transparent, gelatinous 
structures resembling branches of trees. Only half-a-dozen 
fragments of these domiciles of pelagic life had previously 
been available for the eye of Science. Lillie was, in his quiet 
way, the most elated of men when he saw the priceless nature 
of that particular catch, for it alone meant fame for himself 
and the Expedition. Once, Lillie dropped his biggest trawl 
overboard. We steamed dead slow and let the great net scour 
the sea-bed for a couple of miles ; then the winch was started 
and the trawl was hauled aboard. It bulged and overflowed 
with the abundance of the catch — Crustacea, star-fish, sea- 
urchins, great worms, anemones, molluscs, etc. ; but the bulk 
of the mass of strange creatures from the deep were large 
siliceous sponges covered with long glassy spines. The best 
of the various genera were sorted into jars of spirit, and the 
whole operation provided another fine subject for the kine- 
matograph. 

Sometimes, as we lay at the glacier edge, ice-floes closed in 
around us and drifted away again on the turn of the tide — 
though the rise and fall of the tide in McMurdo Sound is very 
slight. Occasionally seals came up and blinked and snorted at 




A SEAL RISING NEAR THE SHIP. 




BIOLOGIST LILLIE WITH A LARGE SILICEOUS SPONGE. 



84] 



CONCERNING WHALES 85 

the ship in wonder, and penguins eyed us critically; whilst 
frequently whales rose and spouted in our vicinity. These great 
creatures were to me a never-ending wonder. The last whale 
that I saw in the Antarctic excited in me almost as much 
awe as did the first, and I spent many interesting hours trying 
to secure moving-pictures of them — ^which is anything but 
an easy task. 

It is a matter of common, though erroneous, belief, that 
whales spout water from their heads ; but it is no more possible 
for a whale to blow water from its lungs than for any other 
mammal to do so. (Elephants refresh themselves by blowing 
water over their bodies, but it is only such water as they can 
secrete in their trunks.) Whales, being mammals, can only 
remain under water for a limited time. Periodically they 
must came to the surface to breathe, and it is the vapour they 
exhale when breathing — which resembles a jet of spray in the 
air — that is known as the ' spout.' The lower the temperature, 
the more plainly visible is this breath of the whalej I have 
often seen whales blowing in the warm waters of the Pacific, 
but their spouts were much greater in these Polar seas. 

We saw several different species of whales in McMurdo 
Sound. As, however, it is not my mission to embark upon 
biological dissertations, but simply to describe interesting 
phases of the animal life of the South which came within 
my province to observe and illustrate, I will confine my remarks 
to the two most interesting — the Blue Avhale, and the Killer 
whale. 

The family, Cetacea, is a large one; it comprises all those 
ocean mammalia ranging from the smallest porpoises and dol- 
phins to the leviathans of the sea. The Killer whale, or Gram- 
pus, which comes midway between these extremes, is a huge 
carnivorous dolphin which preys on warm-blooded animals, 
such as seals and penguins. Full-grown members of the order 
run to thirty feet in length, and their upper and lower jaws 
are filled with a terrible array of teeth, two to three inches long. 

There is a model of a small Killer whale in the Natural 
History Museum at South Kensington, about which the 



86 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

following information is given : * The members of this genus 
are distinguished from all their allies by their great ferocity, 
being the only cetaceans which habitually prey on warm- 
blooded animals. Though fish form part of their food, they 
also attack and devour seals, and various species of their own 
order, not only the smaller porpoises and dolphins, but even full- 
sized whales, which they hunt in packs, as wolves do the larger 
ruminants.' 

Many of these * wolves of the sea ' — ^as they are called by 
whalers — now appeared around us, and great Rorquals were 
seen as well. The Rorquals are fish-eating whales ; they have 
no teeth, but their upper jaws are filled with comb-like layers 
of the horny, flexible substance known as baleen, or whale- 
bone, through which they strain their food. Cruising open- 
jawed into a shoal of fish, or Crustacea, the Rorqual gathers a 
cavernous mouthful; then it ejects the water through the 
baleen — which acts as a sieve — and swallows the catch that 
is retained. The Blue whale is the largest of the Rorquals, 
and is said to be the greatest of all mammals, individuals 
having been known to considerably exceed one hundred feet 
in length. 

The Rorquals almost invariably hunted alone ; but we did not 
regard these huge fellows with the same morbid interest that 
attached to their smaller, bloodthirsty cousins. The Killers, 
more often than not, hunted in pairs, or even, with deVilish 
cunning and combination, in schools ; and in these schools we 
sometimes observed a female spouting with a baby bobbing up 
and down by her side — the baby doing about three blows to 
the mother's one. 

A whale ' going through its spoutings ' is a profoundly 
interesting sight. One first becomes aware of the presence of 
one in the vicinity by a loud, hollow-sounding blast, which can 
be heard for miles. On a perfectly calm day the stillness of 
the Antarctic is so vast that the voices of men talking in 
ordinary outdoor tones can he heard for a mile or more, and 
the blow of a whale can be heard for several. From Wind 
Vane Hill, Cape Evans, I frequently watched great Rorquals 



CONCERNING WHALES 87 

pass two miles behind Razorback Island, which is about three 
miles away, and heard them blow ; and on one occasion, through 
my Zeiss glass, from the same vantage-point I saw one some 
distance beyond Cape Royds, which is seven miles away, and 
distinctly heard it breathing — the sound of each expiration 
reaching me many seconds after the appearance of the spout. 

The larger the whale the greater the spout and louder the 
blow; and the blow of a Rorqual has quite a different note from 
that of a Killer. Each blow of a full-grown Killer whale 
lasts for a second — it takes exactly sixteen pictures on the 
kinematograph to illustrate it, and the machine runs at 
sixteen pictures to the second — ^but a Rorqual's blast lasts 
half as long again. The evolutions of a large Rorqual when 
breathing are very regular and rhythmical. First, the top of 
a huge black head appears above the water; this is instantly 
followed by the warm breath spout, which rises ten or twenty 
feet, and then spreads out and quickly condenses away. 
According to the distance of the whale, the spout is sometimes 
seen a second, or many seconds before it is heard. Following 
the spout, as the great animal describes an arc of half a circle 
with its body, one sees the upper part of the neck and back 
just tip the surface ; then a small, black dorsal fin emerges and 
disappears, and that is all, until the process is repeated some 
seconds later. Rorquals sometimes spout without showing the 
dorsal fin at all, and the flukes, or caudal fins, never appear; 
doubtless they are depressed during the process to act as 
steering-planes. 

The period between the expirations varies, according to the 
size of the whale, from twelve to thirty seconds, and I have 
counted as many as thirty-five spouts in succession. The period, 
however, is not governed only by the size of the whale, but also 
by its proximity to ice. Out in the open water the interval is 
longer than when the same whale is skirting ice-floes. 

Once, I saw an eighty-footer Blue whale rise by the glacier 
edge, and then coast along so close to the ice that part of its 
bulk was in the undercut. It headed straight for the ship, 
and, as the water was crystal clear and the sea unruffled at 



88 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

the time, I could see it below the surface nearly a hundred 
yards away. It blew twice as it approached, and appeared 
to be travelUng at about six knots an hour. As it swerved away 
from the ice to avoid the ship, it passed almost under the 
counter, and I leant well over to observe more closely. It was 
swimming not two yards below the surface, and rose right 
under my eyes to blow again. I saw the blowhole open, and 
felt the blast of its fishy breath in my face, and vapour with 
a strong oily smell enveloped me. 

I noticed that the spiracle (blowhole) was divided by 
cartilage into two sections, like the nostrils of any other 
mammal. It opened the moment it broke surface, and I 
could hear the loud hiss of the inspiration that followed ; then 
it closed and the head was immersed. The total period of 
exhalation and inhalation was about three seconds. After 
watching this operation at such close quarters, I surmise that 
spray is frequently mingled with the breath, as in agitated 
water I have no doubt the spiracle opens before it actually 
breaks surface, and any water above it is blown upwards. 
Hence, no doubt, the origin of the old whaling term * spouting.' 

The big creature had beautiful, clean-cut lines, the greatest 
breadth not being more than eight feet — ^about a tenth of its 
length — ^and I could not detect the slightest movement of its 
propelling members ; it seemed to glide along without any effort 
whatever. As it reached the edge of the firm ice ahead, it rose 
higher than usual — ^as whales always do before sounding — and 
then disappeared. There was a long opening in the ice, about 
thirty feet wide, just south of the Tongue, and here, a minute 
later, the whale rose to continue its spoutings, as though 
revelling in the sunshine and exhilarating air. When it had 
reached about the middle of the lead, it humped its back, as 
though about to sound, and submerged, as I thought for good. 
But not so. It suddenly appeared again, not, however, to 
blow, but to ' breach,' or leap into the air. The huge creature 
shot clean out of water, all dripping and shining in the sun, 
and fell back into the sea with a splash that could be heard 
for miles, sending waves far and wide over the ice. 



A SPORTIVE RORQUAL 89 

I rushed my kinematograph as near as I could to the scene, 
in the hope that the sportive monster would repeat the exploit. 
What a subject for a moving-picture! A hundred tons of 
living, glistening flesh, projected twenty feet into space through 
an opening in the ice! But though I waited expectantly and 
hopefully, with my camera focussed on the lead for nine 
consecutive hours — never stirring from the spot from noon 
till nine p.m. — the whale did not appear again. 

I never succeeded in getting any moving-pictures of a 
Rorqual spouting near the ship, but some fine records were 
secured of Killer whales doing so. Though the Killer is so 
much smaller than the Blue whale, its dorsal fin is much larger, 
that of the male being of isosceles triangular shape, tapering to 
a point, and sometimes as much as five or six feet high. The 
dorsal fin of the female is much smaller, less pointed, and 
slightly curved. Killers will frequently swim just below the 
surface, with only their dorsal fins showing above water. Once 
we saw a pack of them cruising thus, their menacing fins looking 
like murderous weapons mysteriously moving along the surface 
of the sea. It was a sinister sight — knowing, as we did, the 
evil record of the owners below. 

I have made further remarks about these Huns of the ocean 
in my observations ' Concerning Seals.' 

We saw a great number of Lesser Rorquals, which are fish- 
eating whales, about thirty feet long, with hooked dorsal fins. 
They lacked, however, the interest of either of their congeners 
above described. 

To those who may be interested in the great sea mammals 
I would advocate a visit to the Whale Room at South 
Kensington, for one may there learn much about them. One 
may see how the Right whales — which are the only cetaceans 
bearing whalebone in sufficient quantities to pay for hunting 
them for the commodity — are fitted by Nature to feed only 
on the smallest sea creatures; whilst the Cachalot, or Sperm 
whale, can prey on some of the most fearsome monsters of 
the deep. The jaws of the Sperm whale are filled with 
enormous teeth, and it lives on the gigantic cuttle-fish that 



90 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

exist in the ocean depths. But we saw neither Sperm nor Rig^ht 
whales in the Antarctic; they frequent more northern 
waters. 

The Terra Nova now proceeded to the western side of 
McMurdo Sound, to disembark the party who were to examine 
the geological structure of the mountains of Victoria Land. 
They were geologists Taylor and Debenham, physicist Wright 
and Petty Officer Edgar Evans. We landed them on the ice 
near the Ferrar Glacier, at the base of the range of mountains 
which are seen in such magnificent panorama from Ross Island. 
The sloping cliffs of the foothills, eroded by the glacial action 
of ages, were an impressive sight as we drew near them. But 
so high were these lesser hills, that Mt. Lister and the other 
giants, which brush the skies fifty miles further inland, sank 
inversely as the foothills rose, and were lost to view ere we 
had crossed much more than half the Sound. I should much 
have liked to visit this region ; but to illustrate these fine moun- 
tains with justice would have taken many weeks, and there was 
equally important work awaiting me at Ross Island. 

Taylor and his merry men were in high spirits with the 
weather, the scenery and their prospects as they started for the 
Ferrar Glacier. Their programme was to explore it and the 
bordering hills for fifty miles inland; then travel round the 
south end of the Sound and finish at the Discovery Hut, to 
which the Southern Party would also return after completing 
their depot laying. 

Having landed the Western Party, the ship returned to Cape 
Evans, where I disembarked for good, my work on board 
now being finished. There was yet another party to be con- 
sidered, the Eastern Party. They were under the leadership 
of Lieut. Victor Campbell, and numbered six all told, the others 
being surgeon Levick, geologist Priestley, and Petty Officers 
Abbot, Dickason and Browning. They were to proceed to, 
and endeavour to land and winter on King Edward VII Land 
— some four hundred miles to the eastward, at the other end of 
the Great Ice Barrier. 

Ten days later the Terra Nova returned to Cape Evans, and 



MEETING WITH THE NORWEGIANS 91 

Campbell reported that on sighting King Edward's Land they 
had found the way barred by impenetrable pack and bergs, with 
inaccessible ice-cliffs beyond. Thus, landing there being im- 
possible, he had decided to prospect for a suitable wintering place 
on the Barrier itself. On rounding a promontory and entering 
the inlet which Shackleton had named the Bay of Whales — 
from the numbers of these creatures which frequent that 
locality — to their amazement they found Captain Amundsen's 
ship, the Frani, berthed alongside the ice. On boarding her, 
they learnt that the Norwegian explorer had established winter- 
quarters on the Barrier, some three miles from its edge. After 
spending a day with the Norwegians, as two rival expeditions 
could not advantageously operate simultaneously from the same 
base, Campbell had decided to return to Cape Evans to report 
this information, and then to proceed northwards to Cape 
Adare, in Victoria Land, and winter there. 

Captain Amundsen's Expedition left Norway with the 
expressed intention of exploring the North Pole. It was not 
until after it had proceeded to sea, and all Scott's plans were 
known to the world, that the news was received that the 
Norwegian explorer had changed his, and would endeavour to 
anticipate Scott in reaching the South Pole. Even so, it was 
Scott's belief that Amundsen would endeavour to reach the 
Pole from the western side of the continent, instead of coming 
into his own sphere of operations. It was therefore a great 
surprise to us when the Terra Nova returned to Cape Evans 
with the news that Amundsen was on the Great Ice Barrier. 

Before proceeding northwards the ship came in as close to 
the shore as was advisable, to disembark two ponies which had 
been allotted to Lieut. Campbell's party, as he would now have 
no need of them. Owing to the shallowness of the water, the 
ponies were lowered into the sea some distance out, and had 
to swim ashore with a boat to tow them. The shivering 
animals were each made to drink half-a-bottle of neat whisky 
on landing; but one of them never recovered from this, and 
his previous experience in the gale in the Fifties, and had to 
be shot a few weeks later. 



92 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

There was no time to be lost ; so, as soon as the ponies had 
been landed, our shipmates bade us all farewell, and pulled off. 
We stood on the shore watching them until the boat was hoisted 
aboard. Then the good ship dipped her ensign, and, with three 
blasts of her whistle in salute, she stood away to the northward. 

With mingled feelings we watched her disappear into the 
distance, for we should see her no more for nearly a year. 
With what keen expectation we should then look for her again ! 
The old ship was our one connection with civilisation and home, 
and those dear ones from whom we were now cut off by 
thousands of miles of the most perilous of the seas. With 
what tidings would she come again ? Momentous events might 
happen in a year. History would be made; kingdoms might 
even fall in that great striving world so far away. But our 
friends would look for news of us as anxiously as we should 
later look to hear of them. That fine old vessel, now north- 
ward-bound, would relieve as much anxiety on her voyage 
homeward as she would allay for us when she came south 
again. It was now her mission to bear tidings of a little band 
of adventurers, who, in one of the most remote corners of the 
earth, strove to maintain the honour of their country in the 
cause of Science. May it be the destiny of the Terra Nova 
ever to serve as deserving a cause. 

The adventures of the Eastern Party — which henceforth 
became known as the Northern Party — and of the Southern 
and Western Parties are set forth in the second volume of 
* Scott's Last Expedition ' ; but there is room for many books 
about an enterprise such as this : each separate party has 
experiences and adventures quite different from those of others. 

My object must now be to recount my own experiences on 
and about Ross Island, whilst the three exploring parties 
were radiating in various directions. 




THE 'TERRA NOVA' LEAVES FOR NEW ZEALAND. 




THE SOUTHERN PARTY, 191 1. 
Wilson, P.O. Keohane, Bowers, Gran, Scott, P.O. Forde, Meares, Cherry-Garrard, Oates. 



92] 



CHAPTER X 

THE BARNE GLACIER AND CAPE ROYDS 

The direct route from Cape Evans to Cape Royds, when the sea 
is frozen, is only a matter of seven miles across the ice ; but the 
sea was now open and the waves were washing the foot of the 
Barne Glacier ice-cliffs. I decided to make this journey 
immediately, and the only alternative was to go via the glacier 
itself, which had been traversed but once previously. The 
distance by way of the glacier is about twelve miles, but it 
was not my intention to make the journey in one day, as, be- 
sides photographing, there was other work to be done en route. 

The party now at our winter-quarters Hut numbered eight. 
They were meteorologist Simpson, biologist Nelson, engineer 
Day, mechanic Lashly, Clissold the cook, Hooper the steward, 
Anton the Russian groom, and myself. It was arranged that 
Nelson, Day and Lashly should accompany me; so we made 
our preparations that evening for a ten days' absence, and the 
next morning started off after an early breakfast. 

At the base of Cape Evans there is a steep glacial moraine, 
two hundred feet high with a slope of about 45°, which 
Captain Scott had named The Ramp. Our sledge and some 
700 lbs. of equipment had to be portaged up the slope, which 
has a loose surface of rough volcanic rock; this was fairly 
hard work, so some of the others lent a hand. The summit 
of the moraine is of broken blocks of lava for a distance of 
a quarter-of-a-mile, amongst which there are many glacial 
debris-cones ten to twenty feet in height. At the edge of this 
moraine we planted a twelve-foot bamboo pole, with a silvered 
glass ball at the top — the object of the ball being to reflect a 
bright spot of light from the rays of the sun, which could be 

93 



94 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

seen for miles. This was the base-pole from which we were to 
lay out a row of stakes across the glacier, the purpose of which 
I will later explain. Leaving the moraine, we struck out on to 
the ice, and the first three or four miles being easy enough, we 
made good headway with the laying of the stakes, one of which 
was planted every two hundred yards and carefully lined up 
with its predecessors. 

As the sun alternately shone brightly and then passed behind 
clouds, it helped or impeded our progress over the uneven 
surface of the snow-encrusted ice. In the sunshine, any rise or 
hollow, no matter how slight, was clearly indicated by its 
shadow; but when the sun was obscured the whole surface 
became dead, shadowless white, so that it was difficult to tell 
whether the next step would be on higher or lower ground. 
We were continually dropping into holes a foot deeper than 
expected, or else striking sudden, unexpected rises, either of 
which caused uncomfortable jolts and stumbles. One's sensa- 
tions on these occasions were exactly the same as, when 
descending stairs in the dark, there is still another step when 
one thinks the end of the flight has been reached; or vice 
versa, when ascending, one thinks there is yet another step 
when there isn't. But a ray of sunlight transformed every- 
thing. With the passing of each cloud such perplexities 
disappeared, and the going was easy enough, except when 
periodically we encountered heavy sastrugi, which are irregular 
raised patches of hard wind-swept snow. The runners— 
which slipped easily enough over smooth snow or ice — would 
cling tenaciously to these patches, so that frequently we had 
to put forth our utmost united effort to move the sledge. 

Eastwards, lay miles of icy slopes, above which the smoking 
Erebus squatted complacently, its lofty crest gleaming in the 
rays of the sun. As we gradually rose to some seven or eight 
hundred feet above sea-level, the views over the Sound were 
magnificent, with bird's-eye aspects of Cape Evans and Cape 
Royd^, which are rocky promontories about half-a-mile, and a 
mile in length. At the end of Cape Barne there is a remarkable 
volcanic formation terminating in a lofty pillar of lava, which 



w 



A MAZE OF CREVASSES 95 

is the core that sohdified in the vent of a once active crater. 
We found, later in the season, that this pillar was a much 
more striking sight when viewed from the frozen sea. 

In the middle of the afternoon we got into trouble. The ice 
was badly crevassed in places, and we found ourselves in a 
maze of dangerous pitfalls — ^blind chasms bridged over with 
snow. Some of these bridges were very thin, and I became 
aware that I was on one when, leading and piloting the sledge, 
I suddenly broke through to my armpits. It is not a pleasant 
sensation when the ground under one's feet gives way, and 
one brings up with a jolt that nearly dislocates the shoulders, 
and finds body and legs dangling in space which may terminate 
perhaps a hundred yards below. Lashly — who is an old 
Antarctic traveller, having been with Scott on the Discovery 
Expedition — seemed to think I had broken through out of 
inexperience. He asked to be allowed to take the lead, which 
I handed over to him ; but he also broke through a few minutes 
later. The bridge — or ' lid,' as it is called — of a crevasse 
usually has quite a different appearance to a snow surface on 
firm ice; but one cannot afford to be off one's guard for a 
moment when amongst them. Should one member of a team 
disappear — as happened more than once to the Southern Party 
— the strong sledging harness invariably holds him up until he 
is hauled out by his companions. 

Covered crevasses can usually be distinguished easily enough 
when the sun is shining ; but it is vastly more difficult to detect 
them in cloudy weather. They should always be crossed at 
right angles. Sometimes these bridges are yards thick, and 
then they are safe enough; but often they are only of a 
foot or two of snow, or it may be a matter of inches only. One 
tests this by probing with a ski-stick. If a crevasse be only 
a few yards wide and the bridge be strong, a sledge-team may 
string across it in single file quite safely; but if it be wider 
and the stability of the bridge open to suspicion, a narrower 
place must be sought. To attempt to cross a wide crevasse 
obliquely is to court disaster; should the heavy sledge break 
through, it would precipitate the whole team to the bottom of 



96 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

the abyss. We had to proceed with caution, and it took the 
best part of an hour to get clear of the place. Another half 
mile then brought us to the north edge of the ice. 

Having crossed the glacier, two miles of undulating lava 
hills lay between us and Cape Royds. Here we fixed another 
twelve-foot bamboo pole with a glass ball, as before. There 
was now a continuous line of stakes across the glacier, the 
object of which was to test the movement, or flow of the ice. 
Observations made a year later showed that all the stakes had 
moved forward, those in the centre of the line having advanced 
nearly twenty feet. The face of the glacier, however, presented 
no apparent change during the fifteen months that we had it 
under observation, though masses of it, but not bergs, broke 
away from time to time. 

The forward movement of a glacier is caused by the inter- 
mittent precipitation of snow, the weight of which forces the 
front of the glacier bodily into the sea, and masses of it fall 
away, or float off periodically in the shape of icebergs. Not 
all the icebergs met with in the Ross Sea and Antarctic Ocean 
are born of the Great Ice Barrier; thousands of bergs are 
discharged annually from other floating ice-shelves and from 
the numerous land glaciers, such as the Barne, which line the 
coast of the Antarctic continent wherever there are mountains. 

We pitched our tent that evening just beyond the edge of the 
ice. To have hauled the sledge any further would have ruined 
the runners, as the rest of the journey was over rough lava. 

The next morning we portaged our baggage and equipment 
• — transporting everything save the tent and camping gear, 
which we should not require, on our shoulders. Back Door 
Bay is well known by name to readers of Sir Ernest 
Shackleton's ' Heart of the Antarctic ' ; it lies between the base 
of Mt., Erebus and Cape Royds. Could we have crossed this 
bay we might have saved ourselves a lot of trouble; but we 
had to carry our burdens laboriously around it, as it was now 
open water. W^e came across plenty of evidence of the late 
human occupation of the vicinity; but the hut itself lies in a 
sheltered valley, and we were almost on it before it came into 




THE SHACKLETON EXPEDITION HUT. 




SIR ERNEST SHACKLETON'S HUT 97 

view. The photographs that I had previously seen of it had 
impressed themselves on my memory, and when I saw the hut 
for the first time I seemed to have known it for years. A 
fair-sized 'cabin/ as one would call it in America, littered 
around with packing-cases, in a valley sheltered by black lava 
hills — with a frozen lake, a stranded iceberg in the offing, and 
a distant view of the Western Mountains — was the picture 
that met our view as we stood on the summit of the rise. 

As I passed through the doorway into the place that 
Shackleton and his comrades had known as ' home,' I thought 
of that wonderful journey — ^the greatest feat at that time in the 
annals of Antarctic exploration — on which Sir Ernest, with 
three companions, Dr. Eric Marshall, Frank Wild and Lieut. 
J. B. Adams, had, without any support after the first week, 
penetrated the Great Unknown to 88° 23' S. — 97 geographical 
miles from the Pole — having traversed a distance of about 
seven hundred and fifty miles in seventy days; and I entered 
this simple dwelling-place with a feeling akin to awe. 

The interior was all disarranged — things thrown about in 
confusion, showing that the former occupants had left in a 
hurry. So, as we were to make this our abode for the next 
ten days, we set to work to get the place shipshape and more 
comfortable. There were stores of food of all description in and 
around the building, and Lashly soon had a welcome hot meal 
steaming on the galley. Though we kept the stove going, we 
found the hut very cold, for it was badly planned; the floor 
being raised several feet above the ground, the biting winds 
and frost had access to every side of the structure. We realised 
that the 1907 Expedition had lived under conditions of dis- 
comfort unknown to us in our snug, commodious house at 
Cape Evans — which was all the greater credit to them for the 
splendid work they did there. 

I have read in books that there are no germs in the Polar 
regions; that colds and such afflictions are unknown. My 
confidence in such reports was somewhat shaken during the 
ensuing twenty-four hours; for, whilst lying in my thick 
reindeer-skio sleeping-bag that night, I caught an awful cold, 
7 



7 



98 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

and for the whole of the next day, which was dull and stormy, 
I suffered from paroxysms of sneezing. After that experience 
no one will ever convince me that microbes cannot stand the 
rigours of those regions. No doubt they had been imported 
there, perhaps in some clothing, and had been disturbed, and 
perhaps annoyed, by our moving things about. In such 
latitudes only the fittest germs survive, and those that made 
of me their unwilling host that day were certainly the most 
robust and energetic of their kind I have ever entertained. A 
day later I had recovered from their onslaught sufficiently to 
get on with my work. 

It was now the middle of February, and we found very few 
penguins on the rookery that Shackleton's biologist, James 
Murray, had made so well known. It was too late in the year ; 
the breeding season was over, and the young chicks were 
shedding their down and just about to take to the water, whilst 
such of the old birds as stilj remained were beginning to moult. 
I should have to revisit the place in November, when thousands 
would return here to breed again. 

We found Cape Royds a more interesting locality than our 
own cape — which was comparatively featureless. The end 
of the promontory is quite rugged and picturesque, with steep 
volcanic cliffs, and an icy coating which must vary in aspect 
with every storm that sends the waves dashing against the 
rocks, to fall in spray, and freeze as it falls into ever-changing 
ice-forms. There were fine views from the end of the cape, 
and during the time of our visit one Barrier fragment — the 
vertical cliffs of which were clean cut as though sliced with a 
knife — remained aground about two hundred yards off the 
point. I imagine that in spring-time, when the ice is breaking 
up, this place must be a fine vantage-point from which to view 
the procession of bergs that march past daily, a few hundred 
yards from the land. None passed during our stay, as this 
was not the time of year for bergs to parade these waters 
— most well-regulated icebergs being by this time well on 
their northward voyage to dissolution. Only two, the one 
now off the point, and another in Back Door Bay, remained; 




CAPE ROYDS. LOOKING SOUTH. 




CAPE ROYDS, LOOKING NORTH. 



u 



FEATURES OF CAPE ROYDS 99 

these, fortunately for me, having added a further year to their 
existence by stranding on the rocks. I felt duly grateful to 
these sole survivors, for they helped out well in the composition 
of several pictures. 

There were many interesting localities and sights at Cape 
Royds. Sandy Beach, a rock-bound bay with a sloping shore, 
a mile away to the north-west, was a place where seals loved 
to roll about in the breakers that curled and thundered into 
foam on the smooth volcanic sand; and there were frozen 
lakes embedded in the desolate hills. One of these, Blue Lake, 
had been so christened by Shackleton's Expedition because of 
the vivid colour of the ice — which was bright ultra-marine, and 
resembled a frozen pool of water that had been coloured with 
washing blue. Green Lake was of an almost equally brilliant 
hue, but emerald. Then there was Clear Lake, which was 
frozen solid, and both ice and water were of crystal purity. 
A fine curved reach of coastline had been named Horseshoe 
Bay, and was rugged as the wildest parts of Cornwall. Another 
small indentation in the shore, by the penguinry, had been 
named Dead Horse Bay, because one of Shackleton's ponies 
had died there. Strange to relate, the body of that pony was 
still there on our arrival — coated with ice and floating amongst 
the rocks. Stranger still, when, the day after I discovered 
it, I went down to make a snapshot of that pony's body, 
lapped by the waves, to my amazement it had disappeared! 
For three years it had remained. Not even the wild storms of 
this tempest-tossed arm of the sea had carried it away, yet 
the night of our arrival the corpse departed! It seemed 
incredible; and, half doubting my own senses, and wondering 
if I had dreamed about the pony, I enquired if my companions 
had seen it. They had; and Day, who had been a member of 
the Shackleton Expedition, informed me that this was the 
unfortunate that had given the bay its name. This strange 
circumstance can only be accounted for by the long-reaching 
arm of coincidence, or by reasoning that the sea is open here 
for only a few of the calmest ( !) months of the year, and that 
the previous night had been very stormy. 



100 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

On a Polar expedition any fresh specimen of animal life 
that may be discovered is an event of importance. When, as 
I was prospecting with my camera one morning at the end of 
the cape, I espied a weird-looking creature in the shallow water 
near Dead Horse Bay, I was therefore not a little elated. 
Shouting excitedly for assistance to Lashly, who was some 
distance away, I scrambled down the rocks to endeavour to 
cut oif the visitor's retreat into deep water. But it made no 
effort to escape; it seemed to be in a comatose condition, as 
though half-frozen. It was a pink, pulpy-fleshed creature with 
a number of tentacles, which I recognised as a small octopus, 
about five feet from ' tip to tip.' We had no difficulty in 
capturing it with our ski-sticks, and bore it back triumphantly 
to Nelson, who v/elcomed it as a valuable addition to his 
biological collection. He had discovered a large jar of spirit 
in the hut soon after our arrival; and in this the find was 
immersed for preservation. 

The Back Door Bay iceberg provided us with a fine enter- 
tainment one day. We were all in the hut having our mid-day 
meal, when we were startled by a loud rumbling sound, like 
the roll of distant thunder. We rushed headlong out into the 
open, and up to the summit of the hill, fully expecting to see 
the great volcano, twenty miles away, bursting into action. 
But the crater was at peace. The thunder was coming from 
the tabular berg aground in the bay, which was slowly 
crumbling into pieces. As we watched, great slices slipped 
one by one from its sides and, as they fell, smashed up the 
sea-ice that had formed since our arrival. Crack after crack 
opened up in the berg, and slab after slab of ice fell away 
from it as though some unseen, resistless force were at work 
sending the great cube to its destruction. As they fell into 
the water the fragments rolled over and over, bursting asunder 
again and again, until the bay for hundreds of yards around 
was scattered with a mass of floating debris, whilst a mist of 
ice crystals floated o'er the scene. The final phase of this 
remarkable phenomenon was a mere truncated obelisk with a 
few sculpture-like formations around a spreading base — all that 



A REMARKABLE SPECTACLE 101 

was now left of what, a few minutes before, had been an 
immense cube of perhaps a million tons of ice. 

What would I not have given to have known that such a 
spectacle was about to occur, so that I might have had my kine- 
matograph bearing on the wonder? But it was all over in 
five minutes — ^five minutes of one of the most remarkable 
sights I had ever witnessed. 

We found scores of magazines and illustrated weeklies in 
the hut. In some numbers of the * Sphere,' and the * Graphic,' 
and the * Illustrated London News,' I came across many repro- 
ductions of my pictures of tropical lands. Little had I 
imagined, when I took those photographs, that I should one 
day find them under such different conditions of climate, in a 
part of the world which at that time I had no thought of ever 
seeing. I brought those pages back, as souvenirs of my visit 
to one of the most famous places in the Antarctic. 

It was now time to be off home again. So we ' packed ' our 
gear on our shoulders the two miles to the sledge; slept that 
night in our tent on the moraine, and in fine weather the next 
morning made an early start, reaching Cape Evans after an 
uneventful journey the same evening. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE FREEZING OF THE SEA 

Stormy weather, which developed into a southerly gale, 
followed on our return from Cape Royds; when the blizzard 
ceased there was a remarkable marine effect to be seen at the 
end of our cape. 

The gale had blown much water out to the open sea; but 
the water was now filling the Sound again, coming in with a 
great swell which, as it neared the shore, worked up into long 
rollers that curled over and dashed with a thunderous roar 
against the stranded ice-blocks. The waves were coming in 
from the north — ^against the wind, which was in the south — 
and as each incoming roller began to feather, a long mane of 
spindrift streamed out yards behind in the breeze. It was a 
beautiful sight; but it did not last long, and we never saw 
anything like it again. 

The spray from the breaking waves was blown far and wide, 
and as this mist froze as it fell, the end of the cape soon 
became filigreed with arabesques of ice and fringed with icicles. 
These effects provided some beautiful subjects for the camera. 

My wanderings were now confined to circumscribed limits 
until the sea should freeze again, and I had to make the most 
of such chances when they occurred. It was not easy to find 
material for scenic compositions. One could not walk more 
than half-a-mile in any direction except the Barne Glacier, which 
was featureless and uninviting ; and on the cape there were only 
hills of coarse black lava, and a few uninteresting snowdrifts. 

There were curiosities, however, amongst the distorted 
volcanic rocks. Some of the kenyte blocks had been weathered 
into remarkable forms by the cutting action of the particles of 

102 



FEATURES OF OUR CAPE 103 

sand that are constantly being driven by the wind ; and by the 
erosion of the climate, which has a disintegrating effect on the 
rocks as they become warmed by the summer sun after the 
extreme cold of winter. One of the most grotesque of these 
shapes was a monolith of kenyte, fashioned by these agencies 
into the similitude of some weird prehistoric animal — an ante- 
diluvian beast half bird, half toad, which had wings, legs, a 
head, beak and eyes. It resembled an armadillo more than any 
other modern creature, and we christened it The Polarosaurus. 
The geologists wete much interested in this curiosity, and, as 
kenyte lava is very brittle, exhorted all not to injure it. 

Other curious features were a number of conical hillocks, 
not unlike the dolmen mounds of the Stone Age to be found 
in the British Isles. These were at first thought to be parasitic 
cones of Erebus, or offshoot blowholes from the main vent of 
the volcano. But investigation of several of them proved that 
they were either heaps of morainic debris, carried and dumped 
off at these places by some glacier ice that had long since 
disappeared, or the remains of huge weathered boulders. 

There were several ponds among the hills on the cape, where 
the skua-gulls had been accustomed to bathe; but these were 
now frozen solid, and the cascade, to which I have previously 
referred, had trilled its silvery lay for a few days only after 
our arrival. Ten months hence, when these waters were free 
again, I hoped to find some camera subjects there. 

The sea was perfectly clear round the coast, and in places 
off the cape ice had formed on the sea floor, whilst there was 
none on the surface. Some of the rocks that lay several 
fathoms deep were thickly covered with white ice, yet others 
adjoining them were free from it. Captain Scott was much 
interested when, later, I reported this information, as he never 
had an opportunity of observing this phenomenon. 

There were plenty of seals about. From the cliffs, I often* 
watched them gliding sinuously along, searching for the fish 
that lurked among the rocks. Whenever ice-floes drifted in 
under the lee of the land, or there was no wind, the clumsy 
creatures would laboriously work themselves on to these rafts. 



104 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

and snooze for hours in the feeble sunshine. There was a sandy 
stretch of shore at a place we called West Beach, where seals 
sometimes came to loaf and bask and sleep — occasionally 
remaining dormant in the same spot for a day or two. 

About ninety yards from the Hut there was a hill, about 
seventy feet high, on the summit of which Simpson had 
arranged a meteorological screen with some of his instruments 
— 3. barograph, a thermograph, registering thermometers, wind 
gauges and a sunshine- recorder. This latter was a glass ball 
which focussed the sun's rays to a point of light. Whenever 
the sun shone, this point of light burnt a hole in a paper record, 
marked with the hours, which encircled the ball. The paper 
remained intact during such periods as the sun was obscured by 
clouds; but the intervals of clear sky were duly burnt into the 
paper in a series of dots and dashes. From now onwards this 
instrument was certainly not overworked, and in a few weeks 
it would be free to take a vacation of about four months. 

The anemometers, however, had a strenuous time of it. 
They attended strictly to business, and were seldom idle; their 
cups when not whirling madly were at least spinning merrily 
for the greater part of the year, for Antarctica is the most 
wind-swept zone of the earth. 

The registering thermometers showed little variation now 
between maximum and minimum each twenty- four hours; by 
the middle of March we were enjoying (?) zero temperatures 
night and day. 

Wind Vane Hill, as this elevation was named, commanded 
a wide prospect. I visited it daily, and from this vantage- 
point, one day early in March, I observed a long string of 
icebergs sailing up from the south. This was such an unpre- 
cedented occurrence, that I searched with my glass to find from 
what part of the Sound they were originating. To my 
astonishment, I discovered that Glacier Tongue had broken 
away for about half its length. I ran down to the Hut with 
this remarkable information, which was received with in- 
credulity. All hurried to the hill, only to find, however, that 
my report was correct. Two miles of the ancient ice peninsula, 



THE FREEZING OF THE SEA 105 

which had existed in its former state for unknown years— 
perhaps for ages — had broken away, and was drifting out to 
sea. As we watched the fleet of bergs slowly cruising north- 
wards towards the Ross Sea, with Killer whales spouting 
around them, we thought of what might now have been our 
predicament if an error of judgment had been made. 

Captain Scott had seriously considered establishing winter- 
quarters on Glacier Tongue, when it was found impracticable to 
land at Cape Crozier. But the idea had been abandoned in 
favour of Cape Evans, because in his opinion the latter locality 
offered better shelter, and also was in other respects more 
suitable for our purpose, as well as being safer. 

Had we built our house and landed all supplies on Glacier 
Tongue, the whole Expedition might have perished, either by 
drifting out to sea, or else, having lost our house and stores, 
from exposure and starvation. Fortunately for us all, our 
Leader's judgment had been sound. 

There are some volcanic islands south of Cape Evans — ^the 
Delbridge Islands. One of these. Inaccessible Island, was 
so named because it can only be approached when the sea is 
frozen, and is not easy of ascent even then, as its coast is 
exceedingly steep. Another, Tent Island, looks not unlike a 
tent, but was so named because a party once camped on the 
ice under its lee, during the Discovery Expedition. A third, 
Razorback, is a long, narrow ridge of rock with a sharp, 
serrated summit. The most distant w^as Lesser Razorback, 
about four miles away. These islands are not picturesque; 
but the vicinity of Razorback became of much interest to me 
eight months later, as seals frequented the sheltered side of 
the island to bring forth their young. 

About this time the Sound began to show signs of freezing, 
and it was interesting to watch the process. As the cold wind 
smote the water, which was of a much higher temperature 
than the air, clouds of vapour arose therefrom, as though the 
sea were steaming. This phenomenon is known as * Frost- 
smoke.' The vapour, as it condensed, froze in the air, and fell 
back in minute particles of ice into the sea; also, as the wind 



^ 



106 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

agitated the water into spray, this, too, froze and formed into 
slush, which speedily congealed into solid ice as soon as the 
wind subsided. Then again, when the sea was still, needle- 
like crystals could be seen forming under water, and tiny flat 
crystals also; these would float to the surface and quickly 
freeze to each other, forming thin frozen discs. If no wind 
came to disturb them, these little discs — about the size of a 
dollar — would rapidly increase in size and become * pancakes,' 
which soon froze together, forming larger ones. As the pan- 
cakes grew bigger and lay in contact with each other, crystals 
would shoot across and knit them firmly, until the whole 
surface of the water was covered with a mosaic of little floes — 
like the parts of a jig-saw puzzle — gradually fitting themselves 
together. So, Jack Frost worked; and in calm, zero weather, 
in a single hour I have seen an inch of ice grow over a mile of 
the sea. Then would come the wind, and break up all this 
delicate fabric before it had gained sufficient strength to offer 
any resistance. When the wind subsided, the process would 
begin all over again; and so it went on until there came a 
day when the whole of McMurdo Sound was locked in the 
embrace of the Frost King. But for weeks the ice kept 
forming on the sea and breaking up again. 

Early in March, I made this entry in my diary : ' Owing to 
the wind last night, all the new ice has gone this morning.' 
Then followed a three-days blizzard from the S.E. When it 
ceased I proceeded to the south side of the cape with my 
camera, prospecting for subjects showing new ice-features along 
the shore. I found that the spray from the waves, which, 
during the blizzard, dashed against the ice- foot in South Bay — 
as an indentation in the coast hereabouts was named — ^had 
frozen into very beautiful forms : deep, irregular furrows, as 
though the ice had been turned over by a gigantic plough. 
It was impossible satisfactorily to account for this strange 
formation: why the spray should have been deposited and 
frozen so irregularly, seeing that the surface had been com- 
paratively even before the gale. Beautiful though the ice 
furrows were, they were anything but a blessing in other 




A MOZAIC OF SMALL PANCAKE FLOES. 




ICE FURROWS AFTER A BLIZZARD. 



io6] 



SOME ICEBERGS STRANDED 107 

respects. Several feet deep, and exceedingly difficult to 
traverse, they completely barred the way to carrying heavy 
apparatus further round the shore. It was not easy to move 
amongst them even with hands free, as they all sloped towards 
the sea and narrowed at the bottom, so that one's feet got 
wedged in them, and the ankles badly wrenched. Thus, my 
peregrinations became still more circumscribed, and I was 
more than ever anxious for the sea to freeze, so as to have 
wider fields for exploration with my cameras. Besides, too, 
the light was rapidly failing, and before the end of April the 
sun would disappear altogether for a third of the year, putting 
an end to all such work until September. 

During March, from time to time large icebergs would 

sail into the Sound, and as often sail out again with the change 

of the tide ; but occasionally individuals would cruise about for 

a day or two before departing. To my gratification, towards 

the end of the month several picturesque specimens took the 

ground half-a-mile off our cape. They had probably 

stranded on a submerged reef, for our soundings had shown 

the depth thereabouts to be two hundred fathoms. I observed 

them anxiously each day, fearing they might drift away before 

the ice was strong enough to imprison them. If they were 

held, they would later provide some fine photographic subjects. 

Though occasionally they swung a few degrees with the tides 

and currents, the jagged rocks had bitten deep and retained 

their hold. It was not, however, until the middle of April that 

the ice, which alternately formed and broke up again, was 

strong enough to enable me to walk out to visit them ; but by 

that time the fast disappearing daylight was too weak for such 

photography, I should have to look forward to dealing with 

them when the sun came back in the spring. 

During the weeks that the Southern and Western Parties had 
been away, we had frequently wondered and discussed what 
might be befalling them. Each day I ascended Wind Vane 
Hill, to search Hut Point for any signs of life.i Near the 
end of March I detected, with my Zeiss 12 X glass, several 
figures moving about on the snow, and was able to announce 



108 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

to my companions in the Hut, that some, if not all, of the party 
were there. They would have to wait until the ice was strong 
enough to enable them to traverse the intervening fifteen 
miles of sea that separated them from us. As previously 
stated, it is not possible to reach Cape Evans from Hut Point 
by land, as a great part of the coast is impassable glaciers. 

We endeavoured to signal to them by means of a smoke 
cloud, made by burning wet hay, to let them know we were 
aware of their presence, and that all was well with us ; but at 
the time we made the signal, no one appeared at their end, and 
the effort failed. Further attempts were made later, when the 
weather was clear, but these, also, were unsuccessful. 

There was still much open water between Cape Evans and 
Hut Point; but we knew that if the ice held these open spaces 
would soon close, and then it would only be a matter of a few 
days for it to become sufficiently firm to enable our friends to 
attempt the journey. 

The direct route over the sea-ice would take them at least 
eight hours, with all conditions in their favour. We knew 
that, however anxious they might be to get home, they would 
not risk such a dangerous journey lightly ; for one never knows 
what weather a few hours may bring forth in these regions. 
We considered they would not make the attempt until the ice 
was of a minimum thickness of ten inches inshore, as, should 
a blizzard overtake them on the way, their predicament might 
otherwise be perilous. 

On the 12th April, with the ' mercury ' at zero, a south- 
easterly blizzard raged, with thick drifting snow. In the com- 
fort of our well-conditioned home we were glad to think that 
the ice — which close to the beach in our sheltered bay was not 
yet nine inches thick — could not be strong enough out in the 
Sound for our comrades at Hut Point to have made the attempt 
to reach us, and to have been caught in the storm. What, 
therefore, was our amazement? when, just after breakfast the 
next morning (the blizzard having ceased), Lashly, who had 
gone outside, burst into the Hut, shouting excitedly : ' There's 
a large party coming round the cape ! * 




THE FREEZING OF THE SEA. 



to8] 



L 



li 



n 



I 



CAUGHT IN A BLIZZARD 109 

The incredulity with which this announcement was received 
was speedily dispersed by his earnestness, and, rushing in a 
body out into the open, to our astonishment we saw nine bulky 
figures approaching the Hut, dragging two laden sledges behind 
them. With their unkempt beards, they presented so remark- 
able a change of appearance that we recognised them with 
difficulty. We greeted them warmly as we peered into their 
bronzed faces; they were Captain Scott, Lieutenants Evans, 
Bowers and Gran, geologists Taylor and Debenham, physicist 
Wright, and Petty Officers Evans and Crean. It was good to 
hear their voices again and to know that all were well, and 
that the rest of the Southern and Western Parties were safe 
at Hut Point, waiting for the ice to get strong enough for them 
to bring the dogs and ponies across the fifteen miles of sea. 

Greetings over, the party exhibited no bashfulness about 
expressing their immediate wants, which, as they had, hours 
ago, exhausted the rations with which they had started out, 
not unnaturally centred in the direction of the larder. 

Clissold, the cook, as soon as he heard of the party's approach, 
surmising that the call upon his resources would not be a light 
one, got busy with his pots ; and, with a rapidity that did him 
much credit, prepared great dishes of porridge and scrambled 
' Truegg,' jugs of steaming cocoa, and plates of bread and 
butter for the famished wayfarers, who lost no time in dis- 
posing of this goodly fare. Then, their tongues loosened by 
tightened waistbelts, their interests became less self-centred; 
and, in response to the hail of questions to which they were sub- 
jected, they related something of their doings and adventures. 

They had a remarkable tale to tell, and first we extracted 
from them the story of their most recent experiences. It seems 
they had started two days previously ; but owing to the insecure 
state of the ice near Hut Point — which region is swept by 
strong currents — they had made the first eight miles of the 
journey (as far as was possible) by land. They had then 
descended on to the sea-ice, and proceeded to Lesser Razorback 
Island, where, the difficulties thus far having been much greater 
than expected, they had been compelled to camp for the night. 



110 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

Being overtaken by the recent blizzard, they had perforce 
to remain there for thirty-six hours, until the storm abated. 
It had been an anxious time, for, in the expectation of making 
the entire journey in a day, they had not provided themselves 
with any emergency rations. During the blizzard they had 
been compelled to strike camp, and change its site from the ice 
under the lee of the land, to a shelf on the weather side of the 
island, where they would at least be safe from the danger of 
being precipitated into the sea in the event of the ice breaking 
up. There, they had spent a second night, during which. 
Captain Scott told us, * the noise of the wind sweeping over 
the rocky ridge above our heads was deafening; we could 
scarcely hear ourselves speak.' Fortunately, in the latter part 
of the night the gale abated, and they got under way soon after 
daylight; hence their appearance just as we were finishing 
our morning meal. 

During the recital of these experiences, I had contemplated 
the picturesque and unkempt appearance of the party with 
satisfaction and approval, as suitable for richly enhancing my 
growing photographic collection. As soon, therefore, as I 
was able to lure them from the table, I took a group of them 
all, minus their windproof overalls. Having dealt with them 
thus collectively, I proceeded to gather them in individually in 
full Polar kit. To my intense disgust, however. Petty Officers 
Evans and Crean had clipped off their bushy, black beards 
before their turn came round, leaving only a lot of bristles 
that were sufficient to dismay any self-respecting camera. 

Immediately these portraits had been taken, harsh sounds 
of razors scraping stubbly chins and cheeks filled the Hut ; and 
the galley stove was kept busy during the greater part of the 
ensuing twenty- four hours melting ice for hot baths. The 
next morning, the party, clean and in clean clothes, presented 
such a conventional, well-groomed appearance that they were 
no longer of any photographic interest. But Griffith Taylor, 
with a lofty scorn for gibes, which added greatly to my regard 
for him, declined to sacrifice his ' Keir-Hardie ' whiskers 
for anyone. 



A MIRACULOUS ESCAPE 111 

That evening was an interesting and memorable one. Over 
and over again, the newcomers were called upon to repeat the 
tale of their achievements and adventures. The Southern 
Party had experienced very severe weather, with frequent 
blizzards and low temperatures. Often the ' mercury ' fell to 
40° F. below zero, and these low temperattires had told 
severely on the ponies. The party had depoted a ton of 
stores on the Great Ice Barrier, at a place about 150 
miles south of Hut Point, which they named One Ton 
Camp. They had returned to the Discovery hut, all well, 
on March 5th. 

On the return journey, one of the dog-teams had escaped 
disaster almost by a miracle. In the uncertain light the team 
ran on to the snow bridge of a crevasse, which gave way under 
the weight, and the middle dogs disappeared. Osman, the 
leader, exerted all his great strength, and, digging his feet into 
the snow, managed to keep his hold until the sledge was dragged 
back to safety and securely anchored, when he was released. 
Scott told us that they had been actually travelling along the 
bridge of the crevasse ; the sledge had stopped on it, whilst the 
dogs hung in their harness in the abj'^ss, suspended between 
the sledge and the leading dog. Why the sledge and they 
themselves didn't follow the dogs, they never khew. He 
thought a fraction of a pound of added weight must have 
taken them down. 

On peering into the depths, they could see the dogs hanging 
in all sorts of positions, and howling dismally. Two had 
dropped out of their harness, and could be discerned on a 
snow bridge, far below. After the strain on Osman had been 
relieved, Meares was lowered into the crevasse, to secure an 
Alpine rope to the end of the dog-trace. The animals were 
then hauled up, in pairs, until eleven of the thirteen had been 
recovered. The remaining two were 65 feet down. Scott 
himself was then lowered into the chasm; he found the snow 
bridge firm, and secured the two dogs, which were in turn 
hauled up, and then he was pulled to the surface. It had been 
a miraculous escape for him and Meares, and some of the dogs 



112 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

never recovered from the internal strain to which they had 
been subjected whilst dangling on the rope. 

On March 1st, when within sight of Hut Point, another 
disaster had occurred, which, to quote Scott's words, ' bid 
fair to wreck the Expedition.' Bowers, Cherry-Garrard and 
Petty Officer Crean had left the Barrier to cross the sea-ice to 
Hut Point, when they found cracks ahead of them. It was 
necessary to retrace their steps, but the ponies were too done-up 
to return the two miles to the Barrier that night; the party 
therefore camped. They woke up in the night to find them- 
selves adrift on a raft of ice which was splitting under them, 
and one of the ponies had disappeared. Packing the sledge 
in haste, they jumped the three remaining ponies from floe 
to floe until they reached a bigger floe near the Barrier edge 
— ' Killer whales meanwhile expectantly pushing their heads 
up on all sides. Luckily they did not frighten the ponies.' 

In the morning Crean requested permission — which Lieut. 
Bowers granted — to endeavour to get across the heaving floes, 
to summon help. It was a desperate venture, but luckily 
successful. He met Captain Scott and Oates, who returned 
with him to the scene of the disaster. With the aid of an 
Alpine rope they dragged Bowers and Cherry-Garrard and the 
sledges up on to the Barrier. Then the ice began to move 
out again, before anything could be done to rescue the ponies. 
All that night they floated about on their ice-raft ; but the next 
morning the floe had drifted near to the Barrier again. The 
rescue party then descended and tried to rush the ponies to 
safety ; but one, Punch, in trying to leap a gap, fell in, and had 
to be killed with an ice-axe. Two ponies were left. ' We 
saved one, and for a time I thought we should get both; but 
Bowers' poor animal slipped at a jump and plunged into the 
water. We dragged him out on some brash ice — Killer whales 
all about us in an intense state of excitement. The poor 
creature couldn't rise, and the only merciful thing was to kill 
it. These incidents were too terrible ! ' — so our Leader told 
us, and wrote in his Journal. 

Before they had finished the tale of their own adventures, 



ALL ARE PLEASED WITH THE HUT 113 

the new arrivals were anxious to hear of what we had seen 
and accomplished. It was good to see the pleasure and satis- 
faction with which they * took in ' the comforts of the Hut (it 
had been a mere shell when they left), and I was glad to note 
that all were much interested in my dark-room, which I had 
built and equipped in such spare time as I had been able to 
devote to the purpose. 

Four days after the return oi the party, Captain Scott and 
seven others went over to the Discovery hut with supplies 
for those who had remained there. They soon came back, 
reporting all well, and Dr. Wilson returned with them. But 
not until three weeks later was the ice strong enough off Hut 
Point for the dog-teams and the two ponies to be brought 
across. Meares showed Excellent judgment in declining to 
take any risks with the surviving transport animals, on which 
so much now depended. 



CHAPTER XII 

FAREWELL TO THE SUN 

By the middle of April, the sea had frozen from Cape Evans 

to Hut Point, and nearly to the snout of the Barne Glacier, a 

league to the northward. We were, therefore, no longer 

confined to the limits of our promontory; but were free to 

investigate the scenery and phenomena for many miles about us. 

Whenever the weather was clear, the dominant feature of 

the region was the great volcano at the hem of whose flowing 

skirts stood our home. The mountain was a never-ceasing 

source of interest to us. Rising from the Ramp — the steep 

scarp of moraine, about half a mile from our door — Erebus 

glided, at first almost imperceptibly, and then by a rapidly 

steepening slope up into space, until its rounded, snow-clad 

crest seemed to brush the sky. In the sunlight the mountain 

was sometimes a marvellously beautiful sight. During the 

fine weather which prevailed for a week after our arrival, the 

precipitous glissade below its crater rim, polished by the rays 

of the sun, had gleamed each evening like a beacon in the 

cobalt heavens. Now, in the rapidly waning daylight, as the 

red orb dipped behind Victoria Land, and, unseen, traversed 

the western arc of the horizon, the lofty dome of the great 

Erebus — two and a half miles above us — caught and held the 

rays for hours after its lower slopes had become all pink and 

violet and silver-grey. As the sun sank lower, the brilliance 

of this radiance dimmed, until it became a glowing ember in 

the darkening skies. Then, late in the afternoon, .this ember 

would suddenly dwindle to a spark, which burnt for but a 

moment; and when this dying glimmer was extinguished, we 

knew that Mt. Lister, Erebus'. rival in the Western Mountains, 

114 




Pi § 






TESTING THE AIR-CURRENTS 115 

had intercepted the rays of the sun, and that the beacon would 
shine no more that day. 

With the sinking of the sun, the massive substance of the 
great volcano dissolved into a ghostly outline in the purple 
ether : a shadowy mist-like shape which, with the fall of night, 
would often slowly change again to matter — a coal-black sil- 
houette — as the silvering east foretold the rising moon. And 
then the moon crept up and sat awhile upon the mountain's crest. 

But Erebus was an interesting neighbour, not only because 
of its grandeur. The steam-cloud, that perpetually hovered 
above its crater, was, to our meteorologist, a vane which 
infallibly indicated the direction of the higher air-currents. 
Sometimes this cloud drifted away to the southward, and 
sometimes it bore to the north; at other times its course was 
eastward, but only once I saw it blow to the west whilst we 
were on Ross Island. When the cloud bore eastwards, it 
was, of course, invisible to us, as we were at the mountain's 
western base ; when, therefore, no steam cloud could be seen, it 
was safe to assume that the wind at the crater's lip was westerly. 

In summer the volume of this vapour was greatest, for, as 
the weather became colder, it diminished by reason of the rapid 
condensation. Often billows of grey smoke would mingle with 
the steam, forming wondrous lights and shadows, and 
occasionally great convolutions of deep black fumes would swirl 
up from the crater's lungs, and roll fifty miles towards the Pole. 

But, interesting as Erebus was as a wind vane. Dr. Simpson 
had brought scientific equipment for observing air-currents, 
upper as well as lower. He had provided a number of small 
balloons made of gold-beater's skin, of a capacity of one cubic 
metre when fully inflated. Periodically, he would fill one of 
these balloons with hydrogen gas, which was made by 
immersing hydrate of calcium in water, in a generator of his 
own design. The ends of two strands of fine black silk (wound 
on reels containing ten miles) were tied to a small black 
parachute, to which a very light instrument was attached for 
recording the temperature and altitude. When all was ready, 
a slow-match fuse was ignited, the object of which was to 



'ihm ' '"^ --^. -^^.1.-^.^=^ 



116 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

burn through a short thread which held the parachute to the 
balloon, after a certain time had elapsed, and detach it, so 
that it fell. As the ballon ascended, it unwound the two 
silk threads from the conical reels, which were contained in 
a box with holes on the top through which the thread paid 
out. The balloon was then watched through a telescope, and 
its course recorded. When in due time the match detached 
the parachute, the little instrument was borne safely to the 
ground, and was easily discovered by following the trail of 
the black thread over the ice. 

By means of these balloons, the air-currents were investigated 
to a height of as much as five miles. Although on more than 
one occasion the parachute was lost, the experiments were 
generally successful; the little instrument was usually recovered, 
and proved to have done its work, having recorded the tempera- 
ture and pressure. The course of the balloon sometimes 
showed that the upper air-currents were directly contrary to 
those at lesser altitudes, and on one occasion the balloon's 
movements were so erratic that, after zigzagging about to all 
points of the compass, and unwinding several miles of thread, 
the parachute dropped within a few hundred feet of the spot 
from which it had started. 

Simpson was the wizard of our little community. In a cave 
in a small glacier at the foot of Wind Vane Hill — which he 
and his assistant, physicist Wright, had excavated with the 
object of obtaining a more equable temperature — he had 
installed one of the most interesting of his instruments, the 
magnetograph. This apparatus was operated by clockwork 
which, once in each twenty-four hours, revolved a drum, round 
which was rolled a band of sensitised bromide paper. The 
grotto was lighted by a small electric lamp, the rays of which 
were projected on to three small mirrors (suspended from 
magnets), and, being reflected therefrom, penetrated through 
a slit in the instrument, forming points of light on the paper 
band. As the drum slowly revolved, an inch per hour, these 
points of light, influenced by the three magnets swinging on 
horizontal and vertical axes, made a latent photographic record 





DR. SIMPSON AT THE MAGNETOMETER, AND SENDING UP A 
BALLOON TO TEST THE AIR CURRENTS. 




THE CRATER LIP OF MT. EREBU! 
A telephotograph from a distance of 15 miles 



116] 




^kjjSjSSS^ 



OUR METEOROLOGICAL INSTRUMENTS 117 

(in the bromide paper) of the lines of magnetic force. 
Simpson accepted my offer to reHeve him of the daily task 
of developing the records, and I always looked forward 
expectantly to seeing what form the curves would take. These 
magnetic records were probably the most valuable of all the 
mechanical scientific data secured by the Expedition. 

Similar observations are made in the principal observatories 
of the world; for why the earth is a magnet, and why its 
magnetism is constantly changing, are problems as yet unsolved, 
as also is the mystery of magnetism itself. These problems 
can most profitably be investigated nearest the Poles. 

In addition to his cave, Simpson had also a small hut at 
the foot of his hill. It was divided into two compartments, in 
one of which he charted the form and movements of clouds 
with the aid of a * camera obscura ' ; and in the other, which was 
heated with a small coal stove, he incarcerated himself for 
several hours each week to make ' absolute ' calculations with 
a magnetometer, to check the instrument in the ice grotto. 
These researches, however, by no means marked the limits of 
our meteorologist's activities. Besides his apparatus on 
Wind Vane Hill, he established three other screens with self- 
registering thermometers : one on the Ramp ; a second out on 
the sea-ice, half-a-mile to the north; and a third on the 
ice about two miles to the west of our cape. These instru- 
ments were examined and their readings taken daily, freedom 
from blizzards permitting. 

Simpson also established telephone communication between 
his cave and the Hut, and later with Nelson's shelter at 
his biological hole out in the ice; still later in the season, 
he laid a telephone wire on the frozen sea, connecting our 
Hut with Hut Point, 15 miles distant. 

When Dr. Wilson returned from the Discovery hut, he had 
reported wonderful colouring in the sunsets he had observed 
there, of which he had made a number of coloured sketches. 
We certainly saw no such vivid sky effects at Cape Evans, 
though the two points were only 15 miles distant from each 
other. There was colour in our sunsets, but it was much 



^Mmmmmm 



118 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

more delicate than he described. We had, however, some 
lovely afterglows. 

Messrs. Lumiere & Co., of Lyons, had presented me with 
a number of boxes of Autochrome plates for photographing in 
natural colours, though they did not hold out much hope that 
the plates would retain their qualities for more than a few 
months. The plates were really too old to obtain satisfactory 
results by the time I had an opportunity of using them on 
the beautiful afterglow effects we had in the autumn, and they 
had deteriorated in the slow journey through the heat of the 
Tropics. But though the cloud formations were unfortunately 
nondescript, I secured some very interesting records of after- 
glows with these plates. 

Dr. Wilson's modus operandi, when sketching, was of interest. 
In zero temperatures he could not, of course, work with the 
brush, either in water-colour or oil; and he had little affection 
for pastel. He therefore used his pencil. Even so, this 
necessitated the use of bare fingers; so, removing his thick 
dog- fur ' mits,' he would work for a few moments in woollen 
mittens, until his fingers began to chill; then he donned his 
mits again to warm them, and this process was repeated until 
the sketch was complete. Memoranda for colouring were 
pencilled on the margin of each sketch, and indicated by 
pointers. These sketches were by no means rough, though they 
were always drawn again from the original, in much fuller 
detail, before being coloured at leisure in the Hut, by the aid 
of acetylene light. Wilson's pencil work, not intended for 
colouring, was always finished in detail on the spot. Man}"- 
of his drawings were artistic gems. 

It was not until the third week of April that the ice was 
safe enough to enable me to walk out to inspect the icebergs 
that had grounded three-quarters of a mile from the end of 
our cape. By rare good fortune, one of these bergs was 
the most picturesque we saw during the Expedition. I had 
contemplated it with interest each day since its arrival : at first 
with the apprehension that it might slide off the reef that held 
it, and sail away before the sea froze ; then with the fear that 



THE SUN DESERTS US 119 

the storms, that broke up the ice, might free it, and blow it 
out to sea. Now I had the satisfaction of knowing that it 
was frozen in fast; but there was no longer sufficient light to 
photograph it successfully. There were two main portions of 
the berg, separated by a bridge of ice, the span forming a 
perfect arch, I walked through this arch, and found that it 
framed an enchanting view of Erebus. One part of the berg 
resembled a mediaeval castle — keep, bastions, crenellated parapet 
and all. As I carefully took in all its structural beauties, I 
realised that it would form material for many a fine camera 
study when the sun came back. 

Near the berg I came upon a solitary Emperor penguin, 
wrapped in meditation. I regretted having to intrude upon 
his reflections ; but the demands of science and the larder were 
inexorable. So, after we had exchanged short speeches and 
a few ceremonious bows, I apologetically slipped a noose about 
his chest, and conducted him protestingly hutwards. 

On April 22nd, the reluctant sun peeped begrudingly over 
the top of the Barne Glacier, slid along the ridge for half 
a furlong, and set. That was the last we saw of old 
Sol for four long months ! The next day was the date of his 
actual departure, but the glacier hid him from our view. The 
disappearance of the luminary marked the advent of a brief 
period of soft, semi-twilight days — days that are a lasting 
recollection to every Polar traveller. The sun, as he mean- 
dered below the horizon, caused a blue earth-shadow to envelop 
the Sound — a pallid, cadaverous shade, which turned the 
spectral icebergs green. Above this chill, mysterious, rayless 
dimness — which was neither morning, afternoon nor evening, 
but near akin to those sweet moments which in the Tropics 
intervene between the dawn and sunrise — soft, timid, pellucid 
hues — blue-grey, and rose, and pink, and amber — merged and 
intermingled ; then slowly metamorphosed into night. 

Such transitory daylight hours as now we enjoyed were 
shyly iridescent with this colouring ; and it was on such a day 
Gran ciceroned Taylor and me to see the wonders of some 
caverns he had discovered in the ice-cliffs in South Bay. 



120 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

On arriving at the scene, Gran pointed out his find with 
elation. The glacier facq hereabouts was 150 feet sheer, and 
Taylor at once pronounced the caverns to be the exposed ends 
of crevasses ; then naively remarking ; * This seems a more 
sensible way of entering a crevasse, than dropping into it,' he 
and I followed Gran through one of several gashes in the 
precipice, and found ourselves at the bottom of one of those 
deadly pitfalls, to keep out of which has hitherto been the 
endeavour of all who ever visited these regions. 

Although the ice floor of the grotto was level with the 
frozen sea, the walls exhibited no signs of recent water-action ; 
they were broken and irregular, and encrusted with ice crystals. 
Above us, the chasm was almost closed by masses having 
fallen in from the walls, but it extended further into the 
glacier than any of us cared to venture. There was little 
if any colouring, except the most delicate of green in places; 
but, on cutting with an ice-axe into some pockets near the 
entrance, the most beautiful blue light imaginable filtered 
through and filled the cavities. They glowed and flamed with 
colour. If the bare hand were held in one of these cavities for 
a moment — one could not hold it so much longer — the hand 
turned azure. 

Our visit to this remarkable grotto was so interesting that 
I conducted Captain Scott and Wright, our ice-investigating 
physicist, there next day. They were both delighted with this 
latest find in Jack Frost's wonderland, and I photographed 
them examining it, with the aid of flashlights. 

As soon as the sea was permanently frozen, biologist 
Nelson established an experimental station about a mile out 
on the ice. Here he spent much of his time, weather 
permitting, repeating each day unpleasant, wet and messy 
operations, which involved lowering various devices to the 
bottom of the sea, and then hauling them up again. The hole, 
through which he carried out these experiments, froze at least 
a foot per day, and the ice had first to be removed with a pick. 
As it was very hard, this took time. It was unfortunate for 
Nelson that the warming exercise thus entailed came at the 



■MM 



THE FISH-TRAP 121 

beginning, instead qf at the ^d of his job^i as the ensuing 
operations were not exactly of a blood-circulating nature. 

Having opened the hole, he would first drag up the net 
he had set the previous day, and strain and bottle such diatoms 
and animalculae as it contained ; next, he lowered thermometers 
to test the temperature at the sea floor and at various depths ; 
then he dropped his * water-bottle ' to secure a sample from 
the bottom, and, finally, before departing, set his nets prepara- 
tory to repeating similar operations the next day. Later, in 
comfort in his lab', he would submit the result of his catch to 
microscopical examination, and write his reports. Nelson's ex- 
periments showed that the sea-water maintained a constant tem- 
perature of -|-29° F., even when the ice was many feet thick, 
and the temperature was seventy or eighty degrees lower 
above it. 

Amongst his numerous appliances, * gadgets,' he called them 
— windlasses, water-bottles, current meters, sounding devices, 
nets, townets, trawls and other things — Nelson had brought 
the essentials for a fish-trap. These, when assembled, 
formed a long, cylindrical-shaped affair, made of a frame- 
work of iron rods covered with wire netting, the ends being 
truncated cones turned inwards, with a hole in the centre — 
like a fly-trap. Baited with some scraps of seal-meat, this 
snare was lowered through a hole in the ice to the bottom, 
about half-a-mile off the cape, and left there for twenty-four 
hours. Such fish as entered the trap and were unable to find 
the way out again, were captured. A number of a genus 
named Notothenia were so caught, occasionally as many as 
forty. When fried, they tasted not unlike whiting, and were 
a welcome addition to our table. Finding, however, that the 
catch soon fell off in numbers, we assumed that the seals had 
found the vicinity of the trap good hunting-ground, and 
gobbled up the fish that were attracted to it, before they were 
ensnared. Consequently, the location of the trap had to be 
changed frequently; each new hole being pierced about half- 
a-mile from its immediate predecessor. 

Dr. Atkinson took charge of these fishing operations — 



Am 



122 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

excavating the hole; opening it each day; securing the catch 
and rebaiting the trap, and then re-setting it. But one of the 
afterguard or the men always accompanied him to lend a 
hand. Sometimes I assisted at this operation myself, as it 
was exceedingly interesting; and once I took out my camera 
in the midst of the winter night, and made some flashlight 
photographs of Atkinson and Clissold hauling the trap to the 
surface. It was an intensely cold job, with the ' mercury ' * 
at 42° F. below zero, as the preparing of the flashes necessitated 
the removal of my thick fur mits. Immediately after taking 
the picture, I had to hurry back to the Hut to restore the 
circulation in both hands, which had gone white and bloodless. 

The trap sparkled with phosphorescence as it was pulled to 
the surface, and the catch was instantly frozen to death on 
reaching the air, which was at that time about seventy degrees 
colder than the water. 

The Polar night crept upon us imperceptibly. With the 
departure of the sun there followed three weeks of gradually 
deepening twilight days, until, inversely as in December there 
had been little difference between day and night; now, the 
middle of May, there was little difference between night and 
day. Darkness encompassed the earth. We had witnessed 
the summer glories of the midnight sun. Now we were to 
behold the winter wonders of the midday night. 

* In low zero temperatures mercury freezes ; therefore spirit 
thermometers are used to record the degrees of frost. 



MfiaiHBMik 



r- 



te 



^BUmm 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE POLAR WINTER 

With the return, on May 13th, 1911, of the rest of the Barrier 
Party who had remained at the Discovery hut, our number 
was once more complete. There were now twenty-five, all 
told, in our abode, which was tenanted to the comfortable limit 
of its capacity. We had a full house. So, as henceforth we 
spent nearly six months in closest association under its single 
roof, I will endeavour briefly to describe our Polar home. 

It was always called the Hut; but the usually accepted 
meaning of * hut ' conveys a somewhat misleading idea of our 
habitation. Certainly no such house had previously been built 
in the Antarctic. It was 50 feet long ; 25 feet wide ; 8 feet to 
the eaves, and 16 feet to the ridge. The framework was 
lined with two thicknesses of tongue-and-grooved boards, 
between which was a layer of dried seaweed, quilted in sack- 
cloth. The outer side was also covered with two thicknesses 
of boarding, with seaweed insulation between. The roof was 
double-boarded, with a layer of a rubber and cork composition 
(called ' ruberoid '), and a layer of seaweed quilting between; 
it was covered with a thicker layer of ruberoid, and was lined 
with a single thickness of boards. In the centre there was a 
large ventilator. 

The floor was double-boarded, with layers of felt and quilted 
seaweed between; it was covered with heavy linoleum, and 
volcanic sand was well piled up round the base of the walls to 
keep out draught. We certainly spared no pains to make our 
dwelling-place weathertight. 

The Hut had two double windows, and at the west end 
there was a porch with two doors; in this vestibule there was 

123 



124 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

an acetylene-gas plant which furnished hght for about ten 
burners. The south and west sides were piled six feet high 
with a wall of stores ; and a covered alleyway from the porch 
gave the cook access to these stores — which were of the 
commodities in most frequent demand — without going out into 
the open. There was a door in this wall of stores also, so 
that it was necessary to pass through three doors to enter the 
Hut; and it was customary to remove snow from boots and 
garments in this outer alley. From time to time, this store- 
house was replenished by excavating replacements from the 
snowed-up stacks of goods outside. On the north side was 
the stable, the walls of which were made of bales of 
hay and rectangular briquettes of coal, and it had a ' lean-to ' 
roof. 

The interior of the Hut was divided by a wall, shelved for 
stores, into two large apartments, the second being about 
twice the area of the first. The first room, in which were the 
men's quarters and the galley, was known as the Mess-deck. 
Nine men lived and messed in this room; which was the 
warmest part of the building, as it was comfortably heated by 
the cook's range. 

The second apartment, or Ward-room, had a long dining- 
table in the centre, on either side of which there was a three- 
feet passage-way. On the outer sides of this passage were open 
compartments, or cubicles, with sleeping-bunks — the bunks 
being light iron-frame spring-beds, with wool mattresses and 
blankets. Captain Scott and fifteen of his staff lived in the 
ward-room. 

At the far end — the east end — of this room, I had been 
allotted sufficient space to erect a photographic dark-room. 
Being fairly handy with carpenter's tools, I had brought my 
own, so as to be independent of others, and during the summer 
I had built and equipped my laboratory when the weather was 
too stormy to work outside. It was eight feet long, six feet 
wide, and eight feet high. After boarding the framework, I 
covered the walls with ruberoid left over from our building 
operations, to keep out all light, and lined the room all round 



BBHH 




THE PHOTOGRAPHIC DARK-ROOM. 




THE AUTHOR AT WORK IN THE DARK-ROOM. 



124] 



i^^i^rik-^ta 



iiMifii^aia 



■■^■tf 



# 



teM 



MY DARK-ROOM 125 

with two or three tiers of shelves. On one side I built a 
bench, covered with ruberoid, and at the end of the bench a 
thirty -inch, lead-lined sink was fitted. On the roof of this 
room — which was eight feet below the ridge of the roof of 
the Hut— a thirty-gallon iron tank was fixed, that I had brought 
for the purpose. A lead pipe, terminating in a swing tap, 
connected this tank with the sink — the fall from the tank to 
the tap being four feet, which gave an ample head of water for 
rinsing plates. 

Under the sink were racks for developing-dishes, etc. 
Various things were also stored under the bench, including the 
kinematograph deyeloping-machine, when not in use; and a 
small carbide-gas plant which generated my own light, inde- 
pendent of the Hut supply. Every available inch of stowage 
space was utilised, even the ceiling being covered with racks 
in which photographic gear was stored. My bed was so 
arranged that it could be folded up in the daytime against 
the lower part of the wall on the opposite side to the bench, 
where it was out of the way. 

To obtain water, I would go out daily and get ice from the 
little glacier at the foot of Wind Vane Hill, melt it down in 
a ' cooler ' on the stove, then mount a ladder and empty the 
water into the tank, through a funnel. Thus, I always had 
plenty for photographic purposes, if used with care. The sink 
drained into a pail, which was emptied when necessary. 

I devoted much care to building and equipping my compart- 
ment, and it was not only a comfortable laboratory and living- 
place for me, but it proved useful for other purposes. This 
room was always kept spotlessly clean and neat, for though 
I cannot claim excessive orderliness in other respects to be one 
of my redeeming points, yet in matters photographic untidiness 
is abhorrent to me. 

On the south side of the dark-room was Dr. Atkinson's 
parasitological laboratory, with a bench covered wth test-tubes, 
microscopes, etc. ; and on top of my room he had incubators 
for the culture of bacteria. Adjoining his bench was the 
physical laboratory, presided over by Dr. Simpson. 



mt^^m^i 



126 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

Simpson's Corner, as we called it, was of constant interest 
to all, for there were self-registering instruments scattered 
about the numerous shelves, by which we could, at a glance, 
learn all about everything in connection with the weather. 
Clockwork ticked everywhere. There were barometers, ther- 
mometers, thermographs and a bewildering array of other 
scientific apparatus ; and there were rows of electric batteries, 
and a petrol engine for running the dynamo which charged 
them — the petrol being fed to the carburettor from a tank 
outside the Hut. 

Perhaps the most interesting, and certainly the most popular 
of all Simpson's apparatus was ' Dine's Anemometer,' a 
wonderful self-registering instrument which recorded each 
separate gust of wind, whether gentle as a zephyr, or of 
hurricane velocity — not that many zephyrs favoured us from 
now onwards. It had a vane at the top of a two-inch pipe 
which projected several feet above the eastern end of the Hut 
roof. This vane kept a nozzle at the end of the pipe, which 
revolved on a swivel, constantly pointed into the wind. The 
wind, rushing into this opening, passed through the pipe, which 
pierced the Hut wall and terminated in a closed cylindrical 
tank in Simpson's Corner. This tank was two-thirds full of 
paraffin oil; the end of the pipe rose above the surface of the 
oil, and over the pipe there floated a long, hollow, bell-shaped 
drum. A gust of wind, however light, entering the pipe would 
raise this floating drum, and also a rod attached to its upper 
end, which worked up and down through an opening in the 
top of the tank, like a piston. At the top of this recipro- 
cating rod a barograph pen recorded its every movement on a 
chart on a cylinder, revolved by clockwork, which was 
graduated vertically and horizontally into hours and velocity. 
If for a moment it was calm, the pen so stated; and if a gust 
of 80 miles an hour raged over the cape, the moving finger 
leapt up to 80, and recorded it. 

This instrument was christened ' The Blizzometer,' and 
during the first gales that followed its installation. Sunny Jim, 
as we nicknamed our meteorologist, watched it closely, and 




DR. ATKINSON IN HIS LABORATORY. 




DR. WILSON COLOURING A SKETCH, 



126] 



m^tig^^^^^^mm 



THE ' BLIZZOMETER ' 127 

was eager to inform us about the velocity of every violent 
gust. Blizzards became so frequent, however, and the instru- 
ment was so infallible, that its novelty soon wore off. There 
came an inevitable day on which, when a more than usually 
fierce gust shook the Hut, and a chorus shouted ' Where did 
that one go ? ' (although in those days we had not yet heard 
of Bairns father), Sunny Jim lost his customary luminosity, 
and exhorted us to go and see for ourselves. 

The pipe through which the air passed to the blizzometer 
was just outside my own compartment, and when blizzards 
raged, the sighing and moaning and utterly unearthly sounds 
emitted by this tube at night were most depressing. They 
frequently rendered sleep impossible, and during the winter 
calm weather was the exception. 

I have stated that my dark-room was at the eastern end of 
the building. Whenever the door was closed — ^as was necessary 
when developing, or changing plates — it became exceedingly 
cold. As no warmth could enter, the temperature would 
rapidly drop to about 36° F. Foreseeing the likelihood of 
difficulty in heating my room, I had brought a small oil-stove 
for that purpose; but I presented this stove to the sailors of 
the Terra Nova, as their mess-room in the ship was inadequately 
heated. For lack of sufficient warmth when the door was 
closed, the lower part of the wall at the end of my room 
speedily became a mass of ice, due to warm air condensing on 
the cold wall. I had to chip this baby glacier away with an 
ice-axe whenever it became six inches thick, which it did about 
once a week throughout the winter. 

As the galley stove failed sufficiently to heat the ward-room, 
a coal stove was started in the space between the end of the 
dining-table and my dark-room. This was a great comfort 
to me, as several times before this stove was inaugurated my 
water-tank froze. Now, however, we were able to keep the 
Hut at about 52° F. ; we found that any higher temperature 
was uncomfortable. 

The corner opposite Simpson's, at the east end of the Hut, 
was inhabited by Dr. Wilson, who spent most of his time 



mmm 



128 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

throughout the winter months working up his sketches. Lieut. 
Evans also berthed there. He spent the winter drawing maps 
from local surveys, which he had made with the help of his 
Norwegian friend, Gran. 

Because of the kindred nature of our work, I was drawn 
into closer contact with Wilson than with any other of my 
comrades. He would often submit his sketches to me, 
and sometimes he would seek my advice when he experienced 
difficulty in getting the effect he wanted, I remember how 
puzzled he once was over one of his studies of Mt. Erebus. 
He could not get the mountain to look high enough. My 
experience in photographing mountains showed me what was 
wrong. He had given the sketch too much sky. Taking a 
sheet of paper I placed it across the top of his drawing, 
cutting off three inches, and immediately the mountain rose. 
He was quite pleased, and thought it remarkable that he had 
not thought of such a simple expedient himself. 

It was my province to illustrate, amongst other things, the 
animal life about us. When, later, I was engaged on this 
fascinating work, my own affection for it was no greater 
incentive than the knowledge that the man whom I held in 
such high regard would be able to invest my pictures with 
the maximum of scientific information. Some of the animal 
habits recorded would have been a revelation to him — ^as they 
are to every zoologist who sees them — ^and I know what 
delight they would have given to Uncle Bill, had he lived. 

Captain Scott's cubicle was the next. His ' den ' was about 
eight feet by six ; it had several shelves of books, which included 
a number of volumes on Polar exploration given to the 
Expedition by his friends Sir Clements Markham and Sir 
Lewis Beaumont. These were in demand by all. I shall 
have more to say about our Leader's environment later. 

The most ornate of the cubicle compartments was that 
occupied by Nelson and Day, on the elaboration of which 
they spent a lot of time. The least pretentious was the large 
one where slept Bowers, Cherry-Garrard, Oates, Meares and 
Atkinson; it was conspicuous by its lack of any attempt 



itt 



iHai 



mi 




Cherry-Garrard. 



Bowers. Oates. 

THE TENEMENTS. 



Meares. 
Atkinson. 




Debenham. 



Gran. 
THE GEOLOGISTS' CUBICLE. 



Taylor. 



[125 



GOOD-NATURED BANTER 129 

at anything more than necessary comfort, and was christened 
The Tenements. 

Opposite The Tenements, on the south side of the dining- 
table, was a compartment occupied by Taylor, Debenham and 
Gran. Whilst we were in Christchurch, I had cast longing 
eyes on a curtain in Mr. Kinsey's laboratory, as likely to be 
useful in the South, and he had given it to me. Gran, seeing 
this curtain stowed away on one of my dark-room shelves, in 
turn fell in love with it, and begged it of me for their cubicle. 
I therefore lent it to them, and it was hung on a wire across 
the entrance to their abode whenever the occupants desired 
seclusion and freedom from the gaze of those in The Tenements 
opposite. Whereupon, Oates, scorning privacy and such 
* effeminate luxury,' as he characterised this fitment, compared 
their cubicle to an ' opium den,' ' a ladies' boudoir,' and 
various other things expressive of his contempt. To these 
gibes the tenants listened with grins of delight, and retorted 
that he needn't be envious because he hadn't got the only 
curtain in the Antarctic for himself. 

Such good-humoured banter attended every domestic 
happening during the long months of darkness that we lived 
through together. 

When the Hut had been finished, it was found that there 
would be room for the ' player ' piano, and it had accordingly 
been unshipped from its cabin in the Terra Nova, and brought 
ashore in sections to be re-erected in our home. From now on 
it was in frequent use in the evenings; but, owing to its 
proximity to his bunk. Sunny Jim insisted that all music should 
cease by 9.30 p.m., as it was his habit to retire early, to enjoy 
a good book and a good cigar, a well-earned indulgence which, 
next to his work, he loved more than anything. 

It was unfortunate that there was so little musical ability 
amongst us. Nelson could play the mandolin by ear; Anton, 
the Russian, occasionally gave us selections on the balalaika, 
and I had brought my banjo and a number of banjo-and-piano 
duets. As no one could play the accompaniments, however, 
these were never used. 



130 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

Few seemed to have much idea of playing the pianola 
piano, and the audience were caused some occasional 
suffering, which was borne in silence. Two or three, however, 
notably Debenham and Cherry-Garrard, manipulated the 
controls well, and played with feeling and understanding. 
The piano, with its fine assortment of music rolls, was, in their 
hands, a source of enjoyment to all. It had been given to 
Captain Scott by the Broadwood Company ; and, on the return 
of the Expedition, Lady Scott generously suggested its presenta- 
tion to Lieut. Rennick, as a wedding present from his comrades. 

We had also a fine His Master's Voice gramophone, which 
had been donated by the makers, together with several hundred 
excellent records. Only those who have lived away from 
civilisation and its comforts can realise the pleasure such an 
instrument gives to those in exile. 

One of the indispensable members of our community was 
the cook. Clissold was a good cook; he was also a clever 
mechanic, and was called into consultation by our meteorologist 
whenever his electrical apparatus got out of order. When not 
engaged in his culinary duties, Clissold was sure to be absorbed 
with some ingenious device or other. The most remarkable 
of his inventions was a contrivance which he introduced in 
connection with the making of bread. Having mixed the 
dough, he would deposit it in a large pan near the galley stove 
to rise, and then retire to his bunk. On top of the dough he 
had placed a small metal disc, the object of which, when the 
contents of the pan rose to the requisite height, was to come 
into contact with another piece of metal, thereby completing an 
electrical circuit which rang a bell by his bed. Clissold then 
got up to do his baking. 

As, for some reason known only to himself, he preferred 
to bake his loaves in the small hours of the morning, this bell 
roused not only the cook, but it also woke everyone else as well. 
Under these circumstances it was scarcely to be expected that 
the device would be popular for very long. It was tolerated 
for a time because of its ingenuity ; but it was finally suppressed 
by a majority vote, only the cook polling in its favour. Not 



LIFE IN THE HUT 131 

to be beaten, however, Clissold substituted for the bell a red 
electric lamp — which he wheedled out of Simpson — and hence- 
forth it became part of the duty of the night-watchman to 
rouse the chef when this signal began to glow. 

I am reminded to give some account of how we fared under 
Clissold's care. We certainly laid no great tax upon his skill, 
for our diet was as simple as it was wholesome. During the 
winter the steward called us at 8.30, and we breakfasted at 9, 
on porridge, bread, butter, marmalade and cocoa. Sometimes 
we had scrambled 'truegg'; and, whenever sport had been 
good with the fish-trap, we had fried * notothenia,' which, as 
I have already stated, taste like whiting. 

For lunch we had bread and butter, cheese and cocoa — - 
cheese being substituted by jam on alternate days — and we 
had sardines and canned lambs' tongues twice a week. For 
dinner we had always soup, of which there was an abundant 
assorted supply in tins; and seal meat appeared on the table 
six days out of every seven, as a rule. The meat is quite 
palatable if well cooked and the seal be young, but it is dark 
and coarse-grained when full-grown. A young seal-steak, 
nicely grilled, is really excellent; the coarser meat always went 
into the stock-pot, and the joint was usually a roasted saddle. 
This was sometimes varied by seal steak-and-kidney pie, or 
slices of fried seal's liver, which was a delicious dish; whilst 
as for seal-liver curry — like Kipling's cinnamon stew of the 
fat-tailed sheep, * He who never hath tasted the food, by 
Allah ! he knovjeth not bad from good.' 

On Sundays, we always had roast mutton, from the New 
Zealand supply stored in an ice-cave at the base of Wind Vane 
Hill. Occasionally, too, the cook would pleasantly surprise 
us with mutton during the week; or with a ragout of stewed 
penguins' breasts, which, when served with red-currant jelly, 
savours of hare. Neither seal nor penguin flesh tastes fishy 
if all the fat be carefully removed before cooking. We grew 
very tired of seal meat, however, as we had so much of it, 
and were always glad when the seventh days came round. 

We had a fine assortment of dried and canned vegetables — 



V 



132 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

potatoes, sprouts, peas, beans, etc. — and two were always on 
the menu. The dried potatoes were especially good. There 
was always an excellent sweet of some kind— canned fruit 
and rice, rice and prunes, or milk pudding, or jelly. Our 
commissariat was remarkable for the vast quantity of pickles 
it contained. There were sufficient to supply ten times our 
number for about as many years. Most of those condiments 
are there still. One's taste does not run overmuch to pickles 
in such latitudes. 

As it was imperative that every precaution should be taken 
against scurvy, lime juice and water was our only beverage — 
except on birthdays, when the non-abstainers were treated to 
a glass or two of champagne in which to drink the health of 
the * guest,' who was allowed a bottle for himself and had to 
make a speech. A record was carefully kept — to ensure that 
no one had more than one birthday during the winter? 

The night-watch had been started on the return of the first 
contingent of the Barrier Party from Hut Point. The after- 
guard took it in turn. The duties of the watchman were to 
stoke the galley fire ; visit the stable occasionally to see that all 
was well with the ponies; attend to the acetylene-gas plant; 
and every two hours to record in the meteorological log the 
readings of the barometer in Simpson's Corner, and of a 
thermometer outside the south-east corner of the Hut, which 
was that most exposed to the prevailing winds. These 
meteorological duties had previously devolved upon Simpson, 
who, hitherto, had been roused every two hours by a reminder 
from an alarm clock. All were as glad to relieve Sunny Jim 
of this tax upon his slumbers, when their turn came round, as 
they were to be relieved themselves, during the intervening 
two weeks, of his alarm clock's toll upon their own night's 
rest. The night-watchman usually regarded the occasion as 
favourable to have a * tub,' for which he brewed hot water 
from ice on the galley stove. 

Another, and often less pleasant obligation of the watchman 
was to keep a heedful eye upon the blizzometer. When 
blizzards raged, the nozzle of this instrument sometimes became 



■cia. 



ABOUT AURORA 133 

clogged with snow, thereby shutting off all pressure on the 
floating drum, and causing the recording pen to fall lifeless to 
the bottom of the chart. The watchman would visit the instru- 
ment anxiously on stormy nights, for if the pen were ' dead ' 
he had to clothe himself warmly, and, heading out into the 
driving blizzard, make his way round the Hut, climb a ladder, 
and with a wire brush clean out the snow that plugged the pipe. 
This was not exactly a joyful task, with the thermometer below 
zero, and gusts of sixty to eighty miles per hour buffeting 
his ribs. But it had to be done. If the job were shirked, the 
recording pen told a visible tale of neglect to Simpson, 
who knew well enough that, though a blizzard might burst upon 
us and work up to hurricane velocity in the space of ten 
minutes, it always died out gradually. Unless, therefore, he 
visited the blizzometer frequently, the night-watchman risked 
laying himself open to the charge of having been caught napping. 

Still another of the watchman's duties was to take notes of 
Aurora each hour, and describe its appearance in the log. Long 
before continued darkness settled down, we had witnessed some 
fine displays when the sky was clear ; and during the winter we 
often saw this bewilderingly beautiful phenomenon, the 
enchantment and mystery and awe-inspiring grandeur of which 
it is impossible to convey in words. 

I was quite unable to secure satisfactory photographs of 
Aurora, though I had equipped myself for the purpose with 
the most rapid plates and lenses obtainable, and also with 
plates specially sensitised to green rays. With exposures of 
half-a-second stars of the magnitude of those of the Southern 
Cross developed out, but no trace of Aurora appeared. A 
fraction of a second exposure would have been necessary to 
secure a clear impression of the restless rays ; but even exposures 
of a minute showed no sign of them, though the stars appeared 
as little streaks. Exposures of five minutes sometimes revealed 
a nebulous glare, of no scientific interest whatever. 

I knew that photographs of Aurora Borealis had been 
secured by Professor Stormer in Lapland, with short exposures. 
When, several years after returning from the Antarctic, I 



134 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

visited the north of Norway in the autumn, I realised the 
reason of my inabihty to secure similar results in the Antarctic. 
The Aurora Boreajis that I witnessed in Norway, though not 
so beautiful in its formations, was more luminous than the 
Aurora Australis we saw at Ross Island, and it seemingly 
took a higher spectroscopic line. I think we were perhaps too 
far south, in IT^ 40', to see the displays at their brightest. 

The investigation of Aurora has long engaged the attention 
of scientists in the north ; but we were able to contribute little 
to what is already known about the phenomenon. The finest 
displays occurred when Simpson's instruments recorded 
periods of unusual magnetic activity, and it was interesting to 
note that they almost invariably originated in the south-east — 
opposite the Magnetic Pole, which is north-west of Cape Evans. 

I have so frequently been asked how we managed to ' while 
away ' the winter months, that I am convinced ,few, besides 
those who have been intimately associated with a scientific 
expedition such as this, have any conception of the work 
entailed. Never at any period, summer or winter, was there 
lack of employment for the energies of all. 

The Petty Officers had sleeping-bags and tents to overhaul; 
sledges to assemble and repair; hundreds of provision-bags to 
make for the sledging journeys; footgear to make and mend, 
and a score of other jobs which kept them fully occupied from 
day to day, and every day the winter through. Anton had 
his * hands full ' to care for ten ponies under the superin- 
tendence of Captain Gates; whilst Meares and Dimitri found 
the care of two dozen dogs, and the preparation of their rations 
for the big journey before them, no easy task. Harness for 
both ponies and dogs had to be repaired, and new parts made ; 
and a great deal of work was involved in protecting the dogs 
from the ravages of the blizzards. It was necessary that the 
ponies should be exercised each day, weather permitting. Each 
man who was gazetted to lead one on the Polar Journey in the 
spring looked after his own particular steed in this respect, so 
that man and beast might better know each other. 

The cook was never idle. Hooper, the steward, kept the 




PETTY OFFICERS CREAN AND EVANS MENDING SLEEPING-BAGS. 




CLISSOLD, THE COOK, MAKING BREAD. 



134] 



METEOROLOGICAL STATIONS 135 

Hut swept and tidy; and had an interminable job in setting 
and clearing tables, in helping the cook with stores, and in 
lending a hand with his other messmates in continually 
replacing the water supply, by digging ice from the small 
glacier at the foot of Wind Vane Hill. 

Taylor, our head geologist — or physiographer as he preferred 
to be styled — spent most of his time writing his diary and 
reports. He must have written volumes, in addition to working 
out maps from Debenham's plane-table surveys. He was also 
a ravenous reader and a merciless literary critic. Debenham, 
his associate — a quiet, tireless worker, beloved by all — ^was 
continually grinding and polishing specimens of rocks and 
lavas which he had collected on the Western Journey. It was 
interesting to watch the gradual transformation, in his careful 
hands, of a rough uninviting-looking fragment of stone into a 
beautiful section, with a surface worthy of enrichment by 
the carving of a cameo. 

Physicist Wright spent most of his time investigating ice 
problems. I went into the subject of photographing frost 
crystals with him, showing him how to secure illustrations of 
his specimens by the aid of magnesium wire, and, later, coaching 
him in photographing ice-crystal formations in situ. 

I have already mentioned the meteorological screens — ^with 
maximum and minimum thermometers, which Simpson had 
erected on the sea-ice and on the Ramp — ^and that these were 
visited daily, freedom from blizzards permitting. It was 
impossible for our meteorologist personally to inspect these 
stations daily, in addition to his manifold other duties ; therefore 
all the afterguard assisted in visiting one or other of them. 
As these visits were not infrequently accompanied by some 
risk, it was scarcely to be expected that the uninteresting 
designations by which the methodical Simpson had classified 
the stations — A. B. and C. — ^would prove popular. The 
unscientific ones speedily improved upon this alphabetical 
labelling, and personified the objects of their calls by christening 
them ' Archibald,' ' Bertram,' and ' Clarence.' Archibald 
resided half a mile out on North Bay; Bertram a mile away 



136 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

on the Ramp, whilst Clarence sojourned on the ice, half-way 
to Razorback Island. 

If the weather looked threatening, it was especially risky 
to visit Clarence, as, should a blizzard suddenly| break upon 
anyone two miles from home, the chances of finding the way 
back to the Hut would be uncertain, to say the least. Clarence 
therefore received less frequent visits than did Archibald and 
Bertram. Our calls on Bertram entailed many a frostbitten 
nose, for the wind was keen where he rusticated at the summit 
of a debris-cone, 250 feet up, on the Erebus moraine above 
the Ramp. On reaching the screen, the ' highest ' and 
* lowest ' temperatures were read by the visitor by the light 
of a fusee. Once I carried my camera up there, and by flash- 
light photographed Bowers and Wilson examining the instru- 
ment. It was a fearfully cold job, in a temperature of — 50°. 
One day in May, when Taylor and I walked out at noon 
to inspect the Arch Berg that lay about a mile off the cape, 
it was creaking somewhat ominously ; we therefore considered 
it prudent not to approach too near, nor to pass under the 
arch. I examined it with a view of estimating the chances of 
successfully making a flashlight study of so huge a structure with 
such appliances as I had at my command. I thought it would 
be possible, if three or four separate flashes were fired to 
illuminate it. In view of the possibility of the arch collapsing, 
I decided to essay the feat at the earliest opportunity the 
weather presented. 

That same afternoon at 5 p.m. a resounding crash was 
heard. Apprehensive of the worst, I ran out of the Hut, and 
could dimly discern in the gloom that my fears had been 
well-founded. The bridge had fallen, and the Arch Berg was 
no more. Somewhat dejected over the passing of this 
magnificent subject for the camera, I went to have a look at 
the ruins, and was greatly cheered to find that, though the 
arch had gone, the portion of the berg that resembled a castle 
was now a more perfect mediaeval fortress than ever. I decided 
to take no chances of further disaster to this fine subject; but 
it was a month later ere the weather was clear and calm 



IB 



FLASHLIGHTING AN ICEBERG 137 

enough to attempt to photograph it with any hope of success. 
A breath of wind would scatter the magnesium flash-powder 
(which was necessary to illuminate the picture) before it could 
be ignited. 

On a comparatively mild day in June — that is to say when 
there was only about 50° of frost, and it was a dead calm — 
I took out my camera, and fired two flashes of eight grammes 
of powder, about one hundred feet distant from the part of 
the berg I desired fully lighted, and one flash for the part I 
desired to be more or less in shadow. This photograph proved 
a complete success, and is probably the only example in 
existence of a magnificent iceberg photographed by artificial 
light in the depths of a Polar winter. 

That evening, at dinner, Captain Scott related, with much 
ardour, to us all, and more especially to our meteorologist, 
how, when he had been walking round Tent Island, he had 
seen three exceedingly brilliant flashes of lightning to the 
northward. As such a phenomenon was unprecedented, he 
wished Simpson to record the fact in his log. I listened with 
attention, and then asked him at what time he had witnessed 
the manifestation. As the time synchronised with my firing 
of the flashlights, I was reluctantly compelled to tell him so. 
He was disappointed to be * done ' out of being able to record 
a remarkable happening, but he enjoyed, as much as anyone, 
so good a joke against himself. 

It is interesting to note that, at the time, he was about four 
miles away from where I fired the flashes, and on the far 
side of an island several hundred feet high. He considered 
the incident of interest, as illustrating the possibility of 
signalling at long distances with such a simple contrivance. 

Early in the winter, the subject came up for discussion as 
to how we could employ our evenings in the most popular and 
profitable manner. Captain Scott was of the opinion that a 
series of lectures would be of interest to all. This suggestion 
was received with approval, and a programme for a ' lecture 
season ' embracing^a wide range of subjects was drawn up, after 
volunteers had been called for and had offered their services. 



138 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

Dr. Wilson led off after dinner one evening, with a discourse 
on ' Antarctic Flying-birds/ a subject on which he was one 
of the foremost living authorities. He illustrated his remarks 
on gulls and petrels, great and small, with diagrams and 
sketches, and told us many interesting things about them. 
Other talks that he gave us from time to time were on 

* Penguins,' ' Whales,' and * Sketching.' Simpson lectured on 
various subjects, the study of which came within his province 
— ' Halos,' ' Aurora,' and other meteorological phenomena ; 
Taylor gave us some splendid chats about * Geology,' and so 
did Debenham. Wright discoursed on * Physics ' ; Nelson on 

* Biology ' ; Atkinson on * Parasitology ' ; Evans on * Survey- 
ing ' ; Gates about ' Horses ' ; and Meares gave us a wonderfully 
interesting yarn concerning his travels in Lololand, in Central 
China. Bowers told us all about * Polar Clothing ' and 

* Sledging Rations,' and was remarkable for the amount of 
humour he got out of such prosy subjects. 

Simpson always managed to make his lectures entertaining 
to all, by practical demonstrations showing how certain physical 
phenomena could be produced artificially. And Taylor could 
tell us more in an hour about Physiography and Glaciology than 
we could have absorbed in months of reading on such matters. 
Moreover, he had a very interesting way of telling his story. 

Captain Scott's contribution concerned his plans for the 
Polar journey; he also gave us a masterly essay on the Great 
Ice Barrier, which showed how deep was the thought and 
study he had devoted to the subject. 

Scott always took the chair when others lectured, and after- 
wards he invited all in turn to comment on any points they 
might desire elucidated. There was often a good deal of 
banter in these discussions; and the comments frequently 
brought forth more information which it had not occurred to 
the lecturer, being thoroughly au fait with his subject, to impart. 

My own co-operation in these evenings consisted of half-a- 
dozen lectures about my travels in foreign lands, illustrated 
with lantern-slides. I had brought my own lantern with me 
— 2i most ingenious and compact one that I had bought in 




THE CASTLE BERG IN WINTER. 




THE AUTHOR LECTURING ON JAPAN. 



138] 



iiSa 



WINTER ENTERTAINMENT 139 

California several years before — and about five hundred 
lantern-slides of the Far East, made from my own negatives, 
and coloured by Japanese artists during my long stay in 
Tokyo. I was glad to find that these slides were much appre- 
ciated ; and I believe getting back into the world again, for an 
occasional hour or two, had a healthy effect. My first lecture 
was on * Burma and Ceylon.' It was good, amidst all this 
eternal snow and ice, to see palm trees nodding to pellucid, 
tropical seas^ * Elephants a pilin' teak in the sludgy, squdgy 
creek ' ; Burmese girls smoking their * whackin' white cheroots ' ; 
golden" pagodas gleaming in the noonday sun, and a hundred 
other scenes aglow with the colour of that fascinating East 
that always called me so strongly — ^and calls me still — to remind 
us that all the world was not ice and snow and science. 

Subsequently, I gave other lectures on * Peking and The 
Great Wall of China ' ; ' Flower Festivals and , Customs of 
Japan'; 'Japanese Temples and Scenery'; 'Across Northern 
India ' and ' Switzerland.' Scott and Wilson were particularly 
interested in my story of Japan, and they resolved to visit that 
charming country at the earliest opportunity. Uncle Bill even 
got me to make out his itinerary, and he spent a lot of time 
studying my book, ' In Lotus-Land,' as a preliminary. 

In May, a notice had been posted up announcing that the 
third volume of the South Polar Times would be published 
on Midwinter Day — ^two previous volumes having appeared 
during the Discovery Expedition. All were invited to send 
in anonymous contributions in the ,form of prose, poetry or 
drawings, which were to be deposited in the 'Editor's Box' 
under the notice. From that time onwards there was a 
noticeably more studious and preoccupied air about the 
occupants of the ward-room, and it was not difficult to divine 
who of our number had literary aspirations, dissemble though 
they might. Cherry-Garrard, the Editor,>had a strenuous time 
for three weeks in June, carefully typing the MSS. he had 
accepted. 

Midwinter Day, June 22nd, was our ' Christmas,' and it 
marked our sounding the depths of the Polar night — for it was 



140 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

now two months since the sun had deserted us. This day — which 
was of course night so far as hght was concerned — came in the 
midst of the only week of continuous calm we had throughout 
the winter. The mercury stood at 2>7° F. below zero. 

At tea that afternoon, Cherry-Garrard — whose kind ones 
at home had furnished him with boxes of all sorts of delicacies, 
which from time to time he generously brought forth for the 
enjoyment of all — produced a colossal cake, which was freely 
sampled by everyone with expressions of gratitude iand approval. 
Cherry's masterpiece was then disclosed, The South Polar 
Times, on which he had spent weeks of patient, unremitting 
care. It was a Crown Quarto volume, cleverly bound by Day 
with * Venesta ' three-ply board, carved with the monogram 
S.P.T., and edged with silver-grey sealskin. 

Cherry had typed its fifty pages faultlessly, and many of 
the contributions were beautifully illustrated with water-colour 
sketches by Uncle Bill. Most of the prose took a comic turn ; 
but some of the verses were of a serious nature. Some photo- 
graphs which I sent in had been accepted; also the following 
lines — with the idea of which I had been inspired whilst lis- 
tening to an argument on the best way to use a sleeping-bag: 

THE SLEEPING-BAG 
There seems to be a difference of opinion amongst us as 
to the most satisfactory way to use a Sleeping-bag. It may 
almost be said that there are ' Sides ' on the subject, hence 
the following: 

On the outside grows the f urside, on the inside grows the skinside ; 
So the f urside is the outside, and the skinside is the inside. 
As the skinside is the inside, and the furside is the outside ; 
One Side likes the skinside inside, and the furside on the outside. 
Others like the skinside outside, and the furside on the inside; 
As the skinside is the hard side, and the furside is the soft side. 
If you turn the skinside outside, thinking you will side with that Side, 
Then the soft side, furside's inside, which some argue is the 

wrong side. 
If you turn the furside outside, as you say it grows on that side. 
Then your outside's next the skinside, which for comfort's not the 

right side J 



MIDWINTER DINNER 141 

For the skinside is the cold side, and your outside's not your warm side, 
And two cold sides coming side-by-side are not right sides one Side 

decides. 
If you decide to side with that Side, turn the outside, furside, inside; 
Then the hard side, cold side, skinside's, beyond all question, inside- 

outside. 

Captain Scott read each article aloud, and there was much 
guessing over the authorship of the contributions. Gran was, 
I believe, the only one to suspect me of having perpetrated 
the above infamy. 

Space forbids me to quote other articles that concerned my. 
comrades. Moreover, to do so would be to trespass too much 
on the kindness of Messrs. Smith Elder & Co., who published 
an edition of the entire volume in facsimile. 

Before dinner, a brisk walk on the sea-ice, in the crisp 
, invigorating air, gave some of us a pleasant perspective in which 
to view our cook's efforts to do honour to the occasion; and 
he had risen to it nobly. 

The Hut had been entirely transformed from its customary 
appearance, by the draping of Union Jacks and sledging-flags, 
and we sat down under festoons of bunting and coloured and 
embroidered silks to a feast, the bounteousness of which seemed 
almost incredible after our customary simple fare. A specially 
excellent brew of seal soup was followed by a huge sirloin of 
roast beef (from our store in the ice-cave) and Yorkshire 
pudding, with Brussels sprouts and potatoes. Those who have 
never been deprived of it for many months have never relished 
the national dish of Old England as we did that day. It was 
food for the gods! Then a huge plum-pudding, all a-fire, 
was borne in, arm high, to a chorus of joyous shouts. There 
were hot mince-pies, raspberry jellies, pine-apple custards, 
crystallised fruits, bon-bons, chocolates and other dainties galore ; 
and, for that one evening only, champagne followed ad lib. 
We toasted our Leader, who replied in a short and appropriate 
speech, emphasising the fact that this day we had reached 
the * half-way house ' in the plans of the Expedition. Then 
we drank to the Northern Party, and lastly to Sweethearts 
and Wives ! 



142 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

A Christmas tree was then brought in from the mess-deck, 
where it had been produced that morning by Bowers and 
the Petty Officers, safe from prying eyes behind a tent-cover. 
It was cleverly constructed of sticks and skua-gulls' feathers 
and coloured paper, and was decorated in the customary 
manner and hung with presents for all — for which kind thought 
our thanks were due to Dr. Wilson's sister-in-law, to whom 
many a hearty good wish went out that day. Bowers rose 
to the occasion finely, and distributed these little gifts amongst 
us with many humorous remarks, amidst uproarious merri- 
ment. Then, after the company had been photographed, the 
table was moved aside, so that I might show about a hundred 
lantern-slides which I had prepared from my negatives of the 
Expedition. The company were in a mood to receive each of 
these topical pictures with a generous round of applause. 
They were a real * hit.' 

Great dishes of snapdragon next came on the scene, and 
when we had enjoyed them to the full, the gramophone started 
up a dance, which — if the truth must be told — was performed 
by some with underpinning more than a trifle unsteady. Under 
the influence of rum punch the fun became fast and furious; 
but two of the afterguard, who were suffering from over- 
indulgence in the pleasures of the table, had retired to their 
bunks and were now lost in slumber. 

The cook, becoming romantic, had burst into song somewhat 
early in the festivities; but under the stress of the occasion 
his remarkably comprehensive repertoire had narrowed down 
to a single ditty which ran to two lines only, repeated over 
and over again, and of which the chorus — which nobody joined 
in — ^was the same : 

And while he was chasing the girl round the room, 

He was chasing the girl round the room. 
And while he was chasing the girl round the room. 
He was chasing the girl round the room. 

After calling out ' Chorus. Fifteenth verse,' and getting as 

far as * And while he was chasing ' somebody stopped him ; 

otherwise he might still have been * chasing the girl.' 



A GORGEOUS SPECTACLE 143 

Petty Officer Evans became reminiscent; whilst the mind 
of the Irishman, Keohane, ran to his native politics, and he 
sought vainly for either an opponent or a sympathiser with 
whom to exchange views. Growing over vehement, he was 
taken in hand by Oates, who tactfully led him to more timely 
subjects. Another Petty Officer who, before turning in, had 
wandered outside — perhaps for a moment's solitary meditation 
under the stars, on the folly of human weaknesses — was found 
reposing on the snow, clad only in his underclothes and sleeping- 
suit, in 40° below zero, and had to be resuscitated. Fortunately 
for him, he had been in this predicament for a few minutes only. 

It was nearly 1 a.m. when someone reported : * There's fine 
Aurora beginning ! ' Hastily donning my warmest clothing, I 
left the now waning saturnalia and went out into the sweet 
fresh air, and was immediately followed by Captain Scott and 
several others. We stood together, spellbound, as we watched 
the grandest and most awesome spectacle the heavens paraded 
during the entire time we were in the South. 

A greenish glare was growing out of the east, silhouetting 
the snowy Erebus into a black, forbidding mass. From the 
midst of this glare great rays shot upwards to the zenith, and 
wandered, like searchlights, among the constellations — inces- 
santly moving, never pausing for a moment in any particular 
spot. Then yellow flames came out of the eastern fire, streamed 
above the ridge of the Barne Glacier, and trickled along it for 
miles. They leapt up into the skies and sank again, and rolled 
in billows down the great volcano's slopes — just as molten lava 
might have rolled ; then suddenly they flickered out, and all was 
dark once more. But only for a minute. Out of the darkness 
came forth light again. The ghostly beams flared out and 
searched the vault of heaven, and from the skies above us 
luminous tasselled curtains unfolded, whilst resplendent 
streamers softly grew, and beckoned to each other. Again 
and again they came and went, and waxed and waned, and 
ebbed and flowed in waves; then a delicate flush suffused the 
flowing draperies, rippling from end to end along their 
undulating fringes, and timidly dissolved away. In the final 



144 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

tableau of this lovely transformation scene the draperies, too, 
broke up, and, dispersing into little groups, hung from the 
shimmering firmament in clusters. Never for a moment still, 
the mystic, evanescent radiance came from nowhere, crept and 
pirouetted about the arch of heaven, and vanished into nothing, 
leaving only the faint lustre of the stars to pierce the indigo of 
the Polar night. 

It was a marvellous inauguration of a season, which, as 
Scott wrote : * For weal or woe must be numbered amongst 
the greatest in our lives.' 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE RETURN OF THE SUN 

Just before the rise of the new moon on the 27th June, at 
eleven o'clock in the morning, three of our number set out 
into the midwinter gloom on one of the bravest adventures 
ever undertaken in the cause of science. They were Dr. 
Wilson, Lieut. Bowers, and A. Cherry-Garrard; and their 
objective was the region where the Great Ice Barrier joins 
the precipices of Cape Crozier. This place was known to the 
Discovery Expedition to be a breeding-place of Emperor 
penguins; and the object of the present journey was to study 
the nesting habits of these primitive birds, about which 
no information had, hitherto, been available to science. 

The gales, which had made our Hut tremble during the 
preceding weeks, had failed to shake the determination of these 
stout hearts to embark upon this perilous enterprise. They 
were provisioned for two months and expected to be away 
about six weeks. They lined up beside their heavy sledge for 
a flashlight photograph to be taken ; then they bade us a cheery 
farewell, and, with several willing volunteers to help them on 
the first few miles, they pulled off into the darkness. 

But for that new moon which was to light them on their 

hazardous way . But I must tell the story in its proper 

sequence. 

You will remember the previous mention I have made of 
the meteorological screens which Dr. Simpson had erected in 
several places, for comparison with the readings of the instru- 
ments at the main screen on Wind Vane Hill. We were 
inclined to regard somewhat lightly the risk of visiting these 
stations in ' thick ' weather. One evening we missed Surgeon 

10 145 



146 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

Atkinson at dinner, and enquiry revealed the fact that he had 
told Taylor at 6 p.m. that he was going to visit Archibald 
— the screen in North Bay. Taylor advised him not to do so, 
as the drift was beginning to blow; but Atkinson had persisted, 
saying he would easily find his way back by facing the wind. 

Fresh snow does not necessarily fall during a blizzard. 
The gale, sweeping over the vast plains or neve (hard wind- 
beaten snow), picks up and carries along minute particles of 
old snow — ^finer than powdered salt — and it is these minute 
particles that form the blinding clouds of * drift,' in which it 
is frequently impossible to see anything more than a few feet 
distant, even in broad daylight. Sometimes this drift is not 
more than five to fifty feet in height, and the sky may be 
perfectly clear and the sun shining brilliantly above it. 

As, at the time we missed Atkinson, he had been absent 
two hours, we were thoroughly alarmed ; fortunately, however, 
the blizzard had quieted down. Search parties were at once 
organised, and for three hours they scoured the cape and the 
sea-ice in vain, whilst flares were frequently lighted at the 
top of Wind Vane Hill, to guide the wanderer or the searchers 
home. Taylor and I went about two miles along the Barne 
Glacier, but saw no signs of anyone. On returning to the 
cape, we met Captain Scott. He looked pale and dejected, and 
was in a state of great anxiety, for he had about given Atkinson 
up for lost. We then started out again in another direction, 
but by now we had almost given up hope of again seeing our 
comrade alive. At 11 p.m., when we were some distance out, 
a rocket recalled all the search parties home. 

We learned that Atkinson had returned. It seems that he 
had gone about half way to Archibald; then, as the weather 
was so thick, he had given it up and turned back, but had failed 
to find our cape. In the swirling drift he had lost all sense 
of direction, and wandered for miles, knowing that only by 
constantly moving could he keep his circulation up, and so 
remain alive. He had reached — ^as he believed — Tent Island, 
and, almost exhausted, had attempted to find safety by 
burrowing into a snow-drift for shelter until the blizzard should 




A BLIZZARD BREAKING. 




DR. ATKINSON'S FROST-BITTEN HAND. 



146] 



Bii 



\ 



A TERRIFIC STORM 147 

cease. Fortunately, in this dilemma the weather cleared 
sufficiently for him to see the moon. Knowing it would then 
be over Erebus, he at once started off in the right direction 
and reached the Hut unaided. 

It was 2 a.m. before the last of the search parties returned 
home, and all were immensely relieved to know that Atkinson 
was safe. He came back in a dazed condition and badly frost- 
bitten, especially in one of his hands, and certainly owed his 
life to the lull in the blizzard which enabled him to see the moon. 

The incident might have jeopardised more lives than one, for 
the blizzard increased to almost gale force soon after the last 
search party returned, and it raged all the next day. 

It was my watch that night, and I can testify to Atkinson's 
fortitude. Though he lay awake writhing with pain all night, 
never a murmur escaped his lips. The next morning his fingers 
were covered with blisters, almost as big as the fingers them- 
selves, but with careful treatment he soon recovered. 

The thoughts of all in our comfortable Hut turned frequently 
to our gallant absent comrades during the following weeks, for 
in July we had lower temperatures and fiercer gales than any 
we had hitherto experienced. The blizzometer was seldom 
idle ; but whenever it became unusually energetic, such activity 
was generally accompanied by a rise of the thermometer to 
the region of the zero line. This rule, however, had notable 
exceptions, and the blizzard which followed on Atkinson's 
adventure attained a wind velocity of 60 miles per hour with 
a temperature of - 35° F. This is a pretty awful combination, 
for no man could expose his bare hand for half a minute to so 
shrivelling a blast without its being frozen to the bone. 

On venturing outside in the height of that storm, I was 
blown off my feet and rolled over by a sudden terrific gust, 
and lost one of my woollen mits. Recovering myself, I was 
completely at a loss, in the smothering drift and pitch darkness, 
to know which way to turn. Taking the wrong direction, I 
stumbled over something and fell again, this time measuring 
my length in a bank of snow. On floundering to my feet, I 
found my mitless hand was numbed and feelingless, and, having 



iSUM 



148 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

no wind-proof clothing on, I was shaking with the cold. The 
situation struck me as being absurd and ludicrous, for though 
I could not be more than ten yards from the Hut, I was quite 
lost as to my whereabouts, an(;i my shouts to those indoors for 
help were borne impotently away and stifled by the hissing 
and drumming of the blizzard. Plunging about in this 
awkward plight, with my bare hand tucked into my coat for 
protection, hope revived joyfully when I came in contact with 
a packing-case, the location of which I knew. This gave me 
my bearings, so, backing against it, I took six paces forward 
and six diagonally, and brought up against the bales of hay 
that formed the wall of the stable. Feeling my way along 
this wall to the Hut door, I was indeed thankful to see the 
inside of our cheery home again. My hand was quite bloodless, 
and I had carefully to massage it back to life. 

I mention this trifling incident to show how a moment's 
lack of care in this land, where danger lurks everywhere, may 
involve one in a predicament which might easily cost a life. 

The following is an extract from Dr. Simpson's report 
about this storm : — ' The worst blizzard experienced, though 
not the highest velocity of wind, was on July 8, 1911. It was 
fairly decent weather in the morning until 9 o'clock, when 
the temperature was minus 35 degrees, or 67 degrees below 
freezing point. Then it started to blow, and by noon was 
blowing 43 miles an hour, not in gusts but continuously. 
Between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. it blew 52 miles an hour, and 
between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. it blew 63 miles, with the tempera- 
ture minus 31 degrees. That gale continued to blow at over 
gale strength for six days, and between 10 and 11 a.m. on 
July 12 it blew 66 miles in the hour. Records of gusts up 
to 80 miles an hour were recorded.' 

Captain Scott made the following entry in his Journal at 
this time: 

July 10. — ' We have had the worst gale I have ever known 
in these regions, and have not yet done with it. The wind 
started at about mid-day on Friday, and increasing in violence 
reached an average of 60 miles for one hour on Saturday, 



THE GLORY OF THE POLAR NIGHT 149 

the gusts at this time exceeding 70 m.p.h. . . . The 
extraordinary feature of this gale was the long continuance 

of a very cold temperature Needless to say no one 

has been far from the Hut. It was my turn for duty on 
Saturday night, and on the occasions when I had to step out 
of doors I was struck with the impossibility of enduring such 
conditions for any length of time. One seemed to be robbed 
of breath; the fine snow beat in behind the wind guard, and 
ten paces against the wind were sufficient to reduce one's face 
to the verge of frostbite. To clear the anemometer vane it is 
necessary to go to the other end of the Hut and climb a 
ladder. Whilst thus engaged I had literally to lean against 
the wind, with head bent and face averted and so stagger 
crablike on my course.' 

Who shall describe the beauty and the glory of a calm, 
moonlit day in the depths of the Polar night? Its serenity 
is almost as uncommunicable as are the fleeting glories of 
Aurora. I never fully realised the wonder of it until once, 
when the moon was full, urged by the rarity of a windless 
day and the exhilarating influence of 70° of frost, I walked 
rapidly over the frozen sea until I was well beyond the pre- 
cipice of ice that towers 200 feet skywards at the end of the 
Barne Glacier. Then I paused, for the prospect that opened 
out was of arresting grandeur. The face of the great rampart 
on my right had, until then, been in the shadow ; but on rounding 
the snout of the glacier, the northern wall was softly illumined 
by the moon, whose beams gleamed brightly on innurtierable 
polished facets in the cliff, and coruscated from a myriad 
crystals at my feet. Her radiance shed for miles along the 
coast, and I could see that the glacier swept northwards in a 
mighty curve towards Cape Barne, at the point of which 
promontory a great black column of lava stood like a sentinel 
in the night. 

But it was not so much the austere beauty of the scene that 
so dominated me, as its utter desolation, and its intense 
and wholly indescribable loneliness. I stood awhile beneath 
the shivering stars, with every sense alert, striving to detect 



150 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

some sound; but the stillness about me was profound. Con- 
centrate the faculties as I might, I could hear nothing but the 
beating of my heart. 

I knew then what Service meant when he wrote: 

* Were you ever out in the Great Alone, when the moon was awful 

clear, 
And the icy mountains hemmed you in with a silence you most 
could hearf ' 

An eerie feeling crept over me in the presence of this 
majesty of silence : a feeling of exhilaration and awe, as I 
thought of my remoteness from that great pulsating throng 
of life so many thousands of miles away. The desire to 
break the magic spell was irresistible, so I shouted a loud 

* Coo-ee ! ' To my astonishment the precipice immediately 
responded, and shouted back ' Coo-ee ! ' It was thus I 
discovered one of the finest echoes I have heard in any land. 
I have listened to some of the most famous echoes of the Alps, 
mocking the yodelers and the Alp-horns ; but I have heard none 
so wondrously clear and ringing as the voice of this Antarctic 
glacier. I sang to it, and joked with it, and, if the sentences 
were short enough, it reproduced them perfectly; but longer 
phrases sent it all a-chattering with a babel of voices that 
became pandemonium. 

So it was here where dwelt the spirits of the Great White 
South! I found they lurked elsewhere, too, along the glacier 
wall, and, now that I had by chance discovered their hiding 
place, I often went out to exchange a few words with them. 

It was greatly to my disadvantage during this winter season 
that I am so light a sleeper. The slightest sound made by the 
night-watchman would wake me; and the melancholy droning 
of the blizzometer pipe outside the wall of my compartment 
often kept me awake all night, or until sleep came from sheer 
inability of the brain longer to resist. It was curious how 
certain thoughts would persistently recur during those wakeful 
hours. The mind would dwell on waterfalls and rivers in 
distant, temperate lands ; and it seemed incredible, in that world 




THE HOME OF THE ECHOES. 



150] 



PIERCING A HOLE IN THE ICE 151 

of perpetual ice, that I could actually have SQen men squirting 
water — water that was not frozen — out of great hose-pipes, 
in the dead of night, to cleanse the streets of London. 

I think these long weeks of comparative inactivity in the 
Hut were more irksome to me than to any of my comrades; 
for the very nature of my life of continuous travel, in search 
of the picturesque during the preceding ten years, had made 
constant cliange of scene almost a necessity to me. My spirit 
chafed impatiently for the reappearance of the sun, so that I 
might get on with the work for which daylight was essential. 

Long walks over the frozen sea when the weather permitted, 
and a vigorous series of exercises in the open air before 
turning-in, now failed to have the effect of inducing sleep; 
so, in the absence of Uncle Bill — who was away at Cape 
Crozier — I consulted Atkinson. He suggested a change of 
muscular effort by excavating holes in the ice for the fish-trap ; 
but, ithough I tried it fairly regularly, this produced no result. 
I never had a good night's rest until the sun came back, and 
day and night alternated once more in a properly-regulated 
manner. 

The piercing of a fresh hole for the fish-trap entailed many 
hours of work ; it was done with pick and shovel and a crow- 
bar. The ice was now about eight feet thick, and of flinty 
hardness. Each shaft sunk had to be about four feet in 
diameter, in order that one might freely work in it, and the 
deeper one delved the harder became the labour. Ere the 
digger neared the end of the task he was well overhead in 
the hole; and in windy weather he had to cast each shovelful 
to leeward, or risk a shower of the lesser fragments about his 
head. The holes were excavated by the light of a lantern, 
and the digger could tell by the black appearance of the ice 
when he was nearing water. Then he had to proceed with 
care, for if he worked too deep and drove the pick through, 
it behoved him to look lively, for a fountain of water would 
spurt upwards and fill the hole, and all his labour might be 
lost. The correct modus operandi, when nearing water, 
was to kave the centre alone, and gingerly pick a trough 



152 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

evenly all round the bottom, until only a few inches of ice 
remained. Then throwing his tools out, the digger himself 
was assisted out by a companion — for two always worked 
together on the last stage — and a long crow-bar was used to 
cut away the disc. This, too, had to be done with care, for 
if one struck too hard and punched through unexpectedly, he 
might commit the unpardonable crime of losing the heavy 
crow-bar, and such implements were too valuable in these parts 
to take risks with; it was necessary to pierce all round the 
gutter gently. The hole would be full of water long before 
the last remaining ligament was tapped away, and then the 
* pancake ' floated to the surface. 

Such spells of necessary exercise were grateful enough, so 
long as the weather was calm. No matter how great a 
desire the ' mercury ' exhibited to shrink into the bulb, one could 
defy the cold if properly clad. Seventy or eighty degrees of 
frost can be endured by any healthy individual if seasonably 
clothed and there be no wind. But if a breeze, be it ever so 
gentle, gets astir in such a temperature, it behoves one to be 
well alert, for Jack Frost is ever on the watch to take his toll, 
and he will bite as often and as deep as he gets the chance. 
Consequently, in the winter time it was nothing unusual to see 
the tips of half the noses in the Hut ' hanging in rags.' 

In bad weather there was always ample for me to do indoors. 
A great amount of monotonous work is entailed in developing 
kinematograph films in these latitudes. On account of the 
difficulty of getting sufficient water, the tank system cannot 
be used. Therefore the films have to be developed, fixed and 
washed in strips of fifty feet on a revolving drum; by which 
method the necessary quantity of the solutions, or of water, 
is reduced to the minimum. But it is exceedingly slow. 
Fifty feet of film lasts for less than a minute on the screen; 
but to develop, fix and wash that quantity of negative took 
about an hour and a half. As several thousand feet of film 
had been exposed in the summer, it took over a hundred hours 
during the winter to develop and wash the negatives. These 
were dried by hanging them up in the Hut on frames. In. 



TWILIGHT AGAIN 153 

addition, there were many hundreds of glass negatives to be 
developed; so, as space in the ship had not permitted my 
bringing an assistant to do all this work, my hands were 
seldom idle. 

For some time past, when the weather was clear, we had 
seen, about midday, a beautiful rosy glow in the north, fore- 
telling that joyous hour when we should welcome the reap- 
pearance of the sun. This harbinger of coming springtime 
grew brighter daily; and by the middle of August a soft 
ethereal twilight, which fell from blue, and pink, and lilac skies, 
prevailed for several hours before and after noon. The daily 
increasing brightness of this twilight had an uplifting effect 
on the spirits of all. Each worker went about his task with 
a nimbleness and effervescent light-heartedness that had not 
been exhibited for many weeks ; for three months of continual 
darkness, almost constant blizzards, and detention in a crowded 
building — following on months of glorious activity in the most 
exhilarating air in all the world — have a sluggish effect on 
the energies. I hailed the approach of daylight with a feeling 
of gladness such as I had not known since those wondrous 
summer days and nights when sleep seemed almost waste of 
precious hours. 

The rapidly brightening skies were an equal source of 
gratification to Nelson, for during the dark months his job 
had been anything but a pleasant one — though no one ever 
heard him say so. If by any human possibility he could carry 
out his daily experiments at his * hole,' he did so ; and when he 
came in with his monotonously regular records of temperatures 
and samples of water obtained from various depths, and a 
great mass of ice about his helmet, I often saw him quietly 
nursing his fingers back to life. 

Wright, too, must have been glad to see the end of continuous 
night. He seemed to be impervious to the elements, and used 
to kneel for hours beside his transit telescope, observing the 
occultation of stars — with a telephone transmitter at his lips 
and the receiver at his ear, by which means he communicated 
the exact moment of contact to his confederate, Simpson, at 



154 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

the sidereal clock inside the Hut. Wright was the possessor 
of a vocabulary of Canadian expressions that was the envy 
of all his comrades. If by chance he should breathe upon the 
eye-piece of his telescope at a critical moment, thereby causing 
it to fog — or anything else went wrong — the remarks that 
our * Silas ' addressed to the particular heavenly body under 
observation were of such a wrathful nature that it was reported 
a star was once seen positively to wobble. 

I cannot vouch for the accuracy of this assertion; but Silas 
was, at all events, no wobbler. Never did mortal man persevere 
at so frigid a task with more consistent resolution. Zero 
or ' fifty below,' it was all the same to him. If the skies 
were clear, Silas knelt in the darkness, scrutinising the heavens 
whenever an occupation was due, whilst Simpson counted 
half-seconds to him through the telephone. 

Shortly after dinner on August 1st, someone dashed into 
the Hut shouting excitedly that the Cape Crozier Party were 
returning. A rush was made to meet them, just as they came 
staggering in, with helmets encrusted with ice, and with pounds 
of ice massed around their mouths. Being masked to protect 
their cheeks and noses, we could not see their faces; but we 
could see their eyes sparkling in their icy visors, and their 
voices sounded cheery enough. We were all anxious to help 
them out of the armour that encased them — for their helmets 
and wind-blouses were literally frozen on to them — and some 
one suggested getting a ' can-opener.' We had to excavate 
them carefully, and when finally they were exposed, their 
faces bore unmistakable evidence of the terrible hardships they 
had endured. Their looks haunted me for days. Once before, 
I had seen similar expressions on men's faces — when some 
half -starved Russian prisoners, after the Battle of Mukden, 
were being taken to Japan. 

We did not press them overmuch to recount their adventures 
that night, for it was obvious they were almost at the point 
of exhaustion for want of sleep. So, after they had eaten 
their fill, they were permitted to turn-in to their beds — which 
must have seemed paradise to them after five weeks camping 




PIERCING A HOLE FOR THE FISH-TRAP. 




PHYSICIST WRIGHT OBSERVING AN OCCULTATION 



154] 



m 



AN HEROIC ADVENTURE 155 

under conditions such as never had been endured^ hitherto, by 
any human beings, with only a thin tent to cover them. 

Next day we drew from them the whole splendid story. Low 
zero temperatures had prevailed during the entire period of 
absence, and at one time the ' mercury ' had fallen to — yT^ F. 
(109 degrees of frost). They had encountered all the gales 
that we experienced ; but under what different conditions ! In 
one terrific storm, when the wind reached hurricane velocity, 
their tent was blown away, and they lay in their sleeping-bags 
buried under the snow for 48 hours without food. Then the 
gale had abated, and providentially they recovered the tent, 
which was found some distance away in a crevice in the rocks. 
Had they not recovered it, they must inevitably have perished, 
for shelter was necessary to operate the Primus stove on which 
they were dependent for hot food. 

Undismayed by hardships and mishaps, these Stoics had 
persevered in their task, only to find that almost insuperable 
difficulties confronted them at the goal. Crevasses and 
appalling pressure-ridges lay between them and the sea-ice 
where the Emperor penguins nested; but, nothing daunted, 
they had struggled down by the help of ice-axes and an Alpine 
rope, to find only about a hundred birds, instead of the thousand 
or more that Wilson had expected. 

The spoils of the adventure were three fine skins and three 
eggs. Skins and addled eggs had been secured on the 
Discovery Expedition ; but these were the only fresh Emperor 
penguins' eggs that had ever been found. They were 10^ 
centimetres long, by 7 centimetres in diameter, and appeared to 
be of a bluish white shade, much discoloured by stains; but 
beyond their scientific value they did not look of any special 
interest. Only those who had risked all to find them could 
realise their import. 

The biological value of the eggs was greatly enhanced when 
Wilson found, on examination in the Hut, that they were in an 
advanced stage of incubation. Information as to the birds' 
past history and development, unobtainable in the adult, might 
be acquired by study of the embryo. When, therefore, Uncle 



wm 



156 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

Bill found the eggs were in the very condition he had hoped 
for, his joy was great, for he now looked forward to being 
able to prove something about the evolution of this strange 
creature. Thus, though the adventure was not productive of 
all the results expected, it was successful in its main object. 
It was, beyond question, the most arduous ever undertaken 
in the interests of ornithology. 

To some, it may seem incredible that men should forego the 
comforts and luxuries of civilisation, and, leaving the joys of 
home and all that many consider most worth living for, venture 
to the most forbidding ends of the earth to suffer inconceivable 
hardships, and to risk health and limb and life itself in order 
to study the breeding habits of a bird. Yet ought we all to 
be thankful that our race produces such men; for the thirst of 
science for knowledge is insatiable, and Britain has ever been 
foremost in the van of those who have not hesitated, if needs 
be, to sacrifice all to satisfy it. 

Scott wrote: 

' To me and to everyone who has remained here the result 
of their effort is the appeal it makes to the imagination as 
one of the most gallant stories in Polar history. That men 
should wander forth in the depth of a Polar night to face the 
most dismal cold and the fiercest gales in darkness is something 
new; that they should have persisted in their effort in spite 
of every adversity for five weeks is heroic. It makes a tale 
for our generation which I hope may not be lost in the telling.' 

When I think of the enthusiasm with which they prepared 
for the colossal task they had voluntarily set themselves; 
the lighthearted manner in which they met the hour of their 
departure, and the quiet and modest way they told of their 
adventures and achievements, I feel it has been a great privilege 
to have known these men as comrades. 

I have made further reference to their journey elsewhere 
in this volume, under my observations on Penguins. 

With the return of the Cape Crozier Party we resumed 
our evening lectures, which had been abandoned during their 



WINTER DISCUSSIONS 157 

absence. No one ever played cards in the ward-room, though 
in the mess-deck the men played frequently. Chess, back- 
gammon, draughts and dominoes were our only games; and 
at all these Nelson was easily champion. Meares and Oates 
were' very keen on backgammon. Captain Scott was fond of 
chess, but as Nelson always beat him, he preferred to play 
with Atkinson, when he invariably won. Nelson, though 
one of the most argumentative of men, was also one of the 
most even-tempered and good-natured. He would argue for 
the love of argument; take any side about almost any subject, 
and usually reduce his opponent to silence from sheer ability 
in the art of controversy. He ought to have been a barrister. 

All manner of subjects came up for discussion at dinner 
time, and were thoroughly thrashed out in the no-lecture 
evenings. One of the most interesting was on Travel, for it 
brought out the fact that the ward-room members had, between 
them, visited almost every part of the habitable globe. Scott, 
Evans and Gran scored the highest in actual countries visited. 
But Simpson, Meares and I maintained that sailors ought not 
to be regarded as bona- fide travellers; as in the majority of 
cases they only touched at sea-ports, and seldom went inland. 
It seemed to us disproportionate that a day's call at Rio 
Janeiro, or elsewhere, should rank equally with Meares' two 
years in Siberia, Simpson's year in Lapland, or my three 
years of travel in Japan. 

A good deal of banter continually passed between the 
scientists and the non-scientist members. This led to Oates 
one day classifying those who held scientific degrees, as 
* Scientists,' and those of us who did not, as * Gentlemen.' 
Henceforth Titus — as he was nicknamed by someone, but 
whether after his historic or sporting namesake I never knew 
— who possessed a rich vein of repartee and dry humour, was 
always the warmest champion of the Grentlemen in these bouts 
with the Scientists. 

Of course many good stories were told from time to time, 
and not unnaturally those most appreciated were such as con- 
cerned travel and exploration. We discovered some excellent 



158 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

humorous incidents recounted in Polar books. The best Polar 
story that I ever read, however, appeared in a London daily 
paper a few years later. Here it is: 

•ICE FROM THE POLE' 

* The strangest " bunco game " in American police annals 
has come to light at Minneapolis, Kansas, where Homer 
Hograth, a farmer, applied for a warrant for the arrest of a 
man who sold him £4,000 worth of shares in a company to 
bring ice from the North Pole for use in Kansas. 

' The man, states our New York correspondent, first 
interested the farmer when he found him engaged apparently 
in making astronomical observations on Hograth's farm. He 
said he had been to the North Pole with Peary, and discovered 
that it was really a pole of magnetised steel projecting upward 
from the centre of the earth, and the source of all electrical 
energy. 

* The man claimed that he had invented an enormous electrical 
shovel capable of scooping up thousands of tons of ice. This 
shovel, he said, would be held suspended in the air through 
a secret process in connection with the electrical energy in the 
North Pole. As the world rotated the shovel would gradually 
drop back, and astronomical calculations showed that it would 
land on Hograth's farm, and an immense profit could be 
realised by selling the ice. 

' Hograth and the stranger agreed to form a company. 
Hograth subscribed £4,000, the stranger took the money, and 
said he intended going to the North Pole. He has not been 
seen since.' 

Of books we had any number, and of all kinds, so that with 
reading, games and lectures our leisure hours passed pleasantly 
and profitably. It is worthy of note that Oates, as becomes a 
soldier, read little else but Napier's ' Peninsular War.' 
Occasionally he would dip into a novel, but he looked upon 
such literature as trifling, and soon returned to the beloved 



mmmt 



THE BIRTH OF SPRING 159 

volumes. Near the head of his bunk he had hung a picture 
of his one hero, Napoleon. 

Every Sunday morning Captain Scott read the Church 
Service, and the day was as far as possible regarded as one 
of relaxation. 

On August 17th (1911) the sun gilded the summit of Erebus 
and the highest peaks of the Western Mountains, and on the 
20th was said to be above the horizon, but the mountain slopes 
obscured him from view. The 26th broke clear and calm, 
with a temperature of — 12° F. It was a glorious day; and 
half an hour before noon Captain Scott invited me to accompany 
him to witness the first sunrise of the season. We walked out 
to the icebergs, climbed to the summit of one that had an easy 
slope, and breathlessly waited. Scott had timed things to a 
nicety. Within a few minutes a flame seemed to burst from 
the serrated lava ridge above Cape Barne; then the upper 
rim of the sun crept out, not rising but sidling along the slope. 
A few minutes more, and the blazing orb had cleared the land, 
and for the first time in more than four months we were 
bathed in his grateful rays. The world was once more golden. 
It was one of the moments of our lives, and we could not 
restrain our joy. 

Scott wrote : * We felt very young, and sang and cheered.' 
With what admirable constraint he always wrote, as becomes 
the great man that he was. * Felt very young, and sang and 
cheered.' / should think we did! We felt like boys again, 
and acted, too, like boys. We shouted and sang for pure 
delight, and cheered and cheered again. Had we been on a 
more secure footing I believe we should have danced, from 
the superabundance of our spirits. As it was, we sat long 
on our icy pinnacle, and rejoiced more decorously in the birth 
of the Polar Spring. 



iitti 



CHAPTER XV, 
THE EARLY SPRING 

When a little band of men live through an Antarctic winter 
in intimate association under a single roof, the character and 
true purpose of each become bared to his comrades, almost to 
his inmost soul. In the crowded throng of life ' make- 
believe ' is too often a disguise that remains uncloaked; but in 
a Polar hut no man could hide behind a mask. The Antarctic 
is no place for drones, and he who is not animated by genuine 
love of his work had better remain at home, for he would be 
a burden unto himself and others. Lukewarmness for the 
cause, or any shirking of difficulties or discomforts would be 
intolerable. 

That twenty-five men passed through this test without 
friction must be held to the credit of all. That this result 
could only have been attained by the possession of the most 
sterling qualities in others besides the Leader, will be granted. 
Such qualities stood out most prominently in the two men 
who stood at Scott's right hand — Dr. Wilson and Lieut. 
Bowers. These two were inseparable friends. In physique 
they were the strangest contrast — Wilson, tall and lean, clean- 
cut and aquiline of feature, with thews of steel, and without an 
ounce of superfluous flesh on his slim, athletic frame ; Bowers, 
short, thick-set and round, with body and limbs as tough as 
teak, yet devoid of ugly knots or ridges of muscle. 

Scott had proved the quality of Wilson's ability, spirit and 
wisdom in Discovery days. Ripened by ten years, these 
attributes, combined with added richness of learning and incom- 
parable tact, had produced one of the most lovable of men. 
Like his Chief, Wilson had learnt the true philosophy of living 

160 



mg^g^^--^^^ 



OUTSTANDING PERSONALITIES 161 

— that happiness is not to be attained in the pursuit of riches ; 
but in tne contentment of spirit born of knowledge, congenial 
occupation, and a useful and well-spent life. 

It was this splendid man — the Head of the Scientific Staff 
of the Expedition, and one of the most eminent Polar zoologists 
of his day — on whom all leant at times. Because of the sheer 
force of his resolute character, his outstanding personality, and 
the sympathetic and selfless nature of his disposition, Uncle 
Bill not only stood foremost at the right hand of the Leader 
of the Expedition, but was beloved by every member of it. 

And so was Bowers — who was nicknamed Birdie, because 
of his unusually prominent nose. No more cheery, joyful soul 
ever lived than he, nor any more disdainful of hardship; the 
word was tmknown in his vocabulary — and here let me state 
I never heard it mentioned by any member of the Expedition. 
Bowers was our Commissariat Officer, and from the hour we 
disembarked in the South he was Scott's privy counsellor in 
all matters relative to the important work of provisioning the 
various exploring parties. To Birdie's never-failing good 
humour and kindly nature we owed almost as much as to 
Uncle Bill's sagacity and tact for the smoothness of our 
domestic life. 

The fine example set by these two in devotion to their Chief, 
and of their Chief's reliance on them, was one of the strongest 
bonds that united the enterprise. 

Another of the outstanding figures of our little community 
was Captain Oates. Gates had a personality that could be 
felt. He was a man of few words; he spoke with deliberation 
and never loosely, and he had a fund of dry humour, and a 
store of anecdote from which gems would drop at the most 
unexpected moments. Scott described him as a ' cheery old 
pessimist ' — ^because he was never known to express himself in 
superlatives about anything. He always delivered his con- 
sidered judgment on any matter that came under his jurisdiction 
calmly, decisively and positively. Unwavering strength of 
purpose was written on Oates' firm face ; and his sturdy frame 
was a foundation on which Scott largely built his hopes later 
11 



162 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

— in the great final effort. His devotion to the indispensable 
animals in his charge was not only one of the most inspiring 
examples of the Expedition, but was one of the main factors 
-to which the success of the primary object of the enterprise 
must be attributed. His precedent was ever before us, for 
the Soldier (another of Gates' nicknames) was more con- 
spicuous by his absence from our midst, than by his presence 
amongst us. He spent the greater part of his time in the 
stable, and had little use for the Hut except as a convenient 
place in which to have his meals and to sleep. 

He would pass hours on end in the frigid temperature of 
the stable — often, I am convinced, merely because of his desire 
to be near the ponies. There was a blubber-burning stove at 
the far end, and when he was not otherwise engaged in some- 
thing connected with the welfare of his charges, he could usually 
be found beside that stove, cooking bran-mashes for them. 

One of my most vivid recollections of our winter life is of 
Oates, pipe in mouth, and arms on the ward-room table, poring 
over his inseparable * Peninsular War.* During such evening 
hours as he spent amongst us, that was how we almost always 
saw him, except when occasionally he substituted a back- 
gammon-board for the familiar volumes. 

In the mess-deck. Petty Officer Evans was the dominant 
personality. His previous Polar experience, his splendid build, 
and his stentorian voice and manner of using it — all compelled 
the respect due to one who would have been conspicuous in 
any company. He, also, was one of the Leader's towers of 
strength. More than once I heard Scott tell him that he did 
not know what the Expedition would do without him. 

It is worthy of remark — though by no means remarkable — 
that the party selected by Captain Scott to accompany him on the 
last stage of the Pole journey were the four men who possessed 
the most striking personalities in our community. 

Petty Officers Evans and Crean, and mechanic Lashly, too, 
were old friends of Scott's, of Discovery days. Evans and 
Lashly had, amongst other risks, been concerned with him 
in a famous crevasse adventure on the Ferrar Glacier, on the 



■■■Si 




MEARES AND GATES AT THE BLUBBER STOVE. 



162] 



ifilHHtaH 



gammm^m 



A KINDLY LEADER 163 

western side of McMurdo Sound. Scott and Evans were both 
precipitated through a snow bridge into an abyss, and hung 
there, dangHng on the rope, in space. It was due to Lashly's 
resource, strength and presence of mind that they escaped with 
their Hves. Such experiences make for lasting friendship. 

The staunchest tie of all that bound the Expedition was the 
incentive for each to do his utmost, born of esteem, respect and 
fellow-feeling for the quiet and unassuming yet masterful 
man on whose broad shoulders rested the grave responsibilities 
of leadership. Animated by the common purpose — to attain 
success in each branch of the undertaking — ^all recognised that 
the pangs of any failure would be keenest in our Chief, for 
it would be on him that the gaze of all the world would focus. 

There were times when one's whole soul went out to him in 
sympathy — as when his chances of success were jeopardised 
by the irreparable losses of the ponies the preceding summer. 
But one honoured him the more for his admirable attitude 
over such blows of Fate. There was no repining or lamenta- 
tion in adversity. Scott simply cast aside misfortunes that 
could not be helped, and seldom if ever referred to them again. 
He looked always forward, with hope and confidence in his 
destiny. 

Captain Scott was a man of splendid physique : five feet, nine 
inches in height, broad and deep-chested, and slender in the 
flanks. His eyes were deep blue, and his face was a faithful 
index to the resolution and courage that dominated his soul. 
He possessed in a marked degree the organising ability indis- 
pensaible to the leadership of a great scientific enterprise. 
Though each member of his staff was an expert in some branch 
of science or art, he would meet these specialists — physicist, 
geologist, biologist, or zoologist-— on their own ground, and 
discuss intimate details of their work. Sound in his judgment, 
and just in his criticisms, he was always quick to appreciate 
and generous in praise ; and on those whom he trusted, he relied 
as on himself. He took the most keen and kindly interest 
in all about him ; and his most prominent characteristics were 
determination, self-reliance and inherent modesty. 



164 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

He had kept much to himself during the winter. He read a 
great deal — generally books on Polar exploration, relieved by 
an occasional novel. He worked a great deal on his plans for 
the future ; he wrote much in his diary, and smoked incessantly. 
Almost invariably he took his exercise alone. Once, during 
the winter, I asked him if he had yet started on his book. His 
reply was : ' No fear ! I'll leave that until I get home.' From 
which I gathered that his Journal was to be used merely as 
notes which later would be elaborated into his official account 
of the Expedition. Though a great part of it was written 
under conditions of extreme discomfort, and much of it in 
the face of unparalleled hardship, when Scott's Journal ulti- 
mately became known, it was manifest to the world that his 
literary ability was of a high order, though readers of his pre- 
vious work, * The Voyage of the Discovery,' knew this already. 

Our Leader had created a characteristic environment about 
him. Besides the numerous books to which I have referred, 
there were many photographs of his wife and little son, Peter, 
about the walls of his cubicle; there was also a rack of pipes, 
and a jumble of Polar clothing. On his bunk lay his naval 
overcoat. When he told me the history of that coat, he 
revealed such a lovable trait of character — a warm affection 
for old and tried friends — that I quote its story as told by its 
owner in his Journal : 

* I must confess to an affection for my veteran uniform 
overcoat, inspired by its insistent utility. I find that it is 
twenty-three years of age, and can testify to its strenuous 
existence. It has been spared neither rain, wind, nor salt 
sea spray. Tropic heat nor Arctic cold; it has outlived many 
sets of buttons, from their glittering gilded youth to green 
old age, and it supports its four-stripe shoulder-straps as gaily 
as the single lace ring of the early days which proclaimed it the 
possession of a humble sub-lieutenant. Withal, it is still a 
very long way from the fate of the " one-horse shay." ' 

A man of moods himself, Scott respected those of others. 
Sometimes he was so light of heart that every inhabitant 



fiBK 



aHOi 



INTIMATE TALKS WITH SCOTT 165 

of the Hut felt the influence of his spirits. At other times he 
was morose and reticent. It was obvious on such occasions 
that he was silently weighted with the problems of the future — 
so infinitely increased by the heavy losses to his transport. 
When this mood was upon him I felt instinctively that he was 
oppressed by the sense of obligation to his country to push the 
venture to success, be the enhanced difficulties what they may. 

Moreover, as he told me more than once, he was troubled 
by the fact that the cost of the enterprise had greatly exceeded 
his estimate, and that there would be a considerable deficit to 
face. I thought he was inclined to let this worry him over- 
much. During the winter, he had on several occasions come 
to my room, closed the door, and opened out his heart to me 
in the matter. Each time I was able to reassure him greatly, 
for I well knew that the photographic department would prove 
to be a considerable asset to the Expedition. 

During these intimate talks I discovered how totally 
inexperienced Scott was in dealing with the Press. He seemed 
to have little idea of the value of photographs made at so 
remote a part of the earth. I warned him that, if the Expedi- 
tion should remain in the South for a second season, it would 
be advisable for him to instruct members, who would return 
the first year, that on no conditions should they release any 
photographs, which they might have taken, otherwise than 
through his Press Agent. He gave instructions to that effect, 
and, as I should be returning, he wrote a letter to his agent 
stating that he was to consult me about all press matters, adding 
that I had his entire confidence, and the right to arrange details 
of such matters on his behalf. (Notwithstanding this, I 
found, when I reached home, that injudicious contracts had 
already been entered into — in 1910 — by which a considerable 
sum was lost to the Expedition.) 

It was part of the conditions of the agreement under which 
I had joined the Expedition that the results of my work should 
become my own property after two years, and that I should 
have world-wide lecturing rights thereto immediately on our 
return to England. Also, I had agreed that Dr. Wilson should 



166 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

have rights to my photographs for lecturing before educational 
and scientific bodies. This matter now became of considerable 
interest, as our lectures in the Hut had brought the matter into 
prominence, and Scott and Wilson had several discussions with 
me about the possibilities of the future. Captain Scott at once 
disclaimed any intention or desire to give more than perhaps 
half-a-dozen public lectures for the benefit of the Expedition 
funds. He told us it was his wish to get back to his work 
in the Navy again, as soon as possible after his return home. 
In this I thought he showed a fine spirit and devotion to his 
profession. Scott's ambitions were concerned only with the 
glory of his country, and he desired to serve it with every hour 
of his life. 

After returning to London, Lady Scott told me that her 
husband had written her to the same effect. 

Captain Scott was, however, none the less cognisant of the 
great potential educational and moral value of the kinematograph 
films of the adventure; and he pointed out that, so far as 
Wilson and I were concerned, it was different matter. Wilson 
could not only tell about the zoology of the Far South, but, 
by means of photographs and films he would be able to show 
the nature of the animal life there. Also, he hoped that I 
would adhere to my intention of lecturing about the Expedition, 
as, in his opinion, * such lectures would help to foster a fine 
and manly spirit in the rising generation.' 

With the return of the sun, I was brought, during the next 
two months, into continual close association with Captain Scott. 
He came to my room one day and told me he realised that it 
would largely devolve upon himself to illustrate the Polar 
journey. Then, in that nice way in which he always asked 
a favour of anyone, he said that I should render a very great 
service to the Expedition if I would take him, and a few others 
in hand, and coach them in photography. I replied that nothing 
would give me greater pleasure than to do anything in my power 
to help him and any of my comrades — and from that time 
my dark-room became a very busy place indeed. 

It had, from the outset, seemed strange to me that among 



MY PHOTOGRAPHIC PUPILS 167 

so many brilliant men no one had more than a superficial 
knowledge of photography. Indeed, the Western Journey of 
the previous summer had suffered badly from lack of adequate 
illustration in consequence. I felt that the results attained 
in the past could be easily improved upon in the future; so, 
as there was no lack of cameras, I began to coach Bowers, 
Debenham, Gran, and Wright, as well as Captain Scott. Both 
Scott and Debenham had some knowledge of photography, 
but it was too elementary to cope successfully with the difficult 
problems that would now have to be faced. 

Debenham at once exhibited a capacity for taking pains 
that was soon productive of the most encouraging results. 
His retentive memory — raided by a genuine affection for photo- 
graphy, and the recognition that it could be of much value to 
him in his science — rapidly absorbed all that I was able to 
impart as to the primary principles, and ere summer came 
he was fairly expert with his camera; he produced beautiful 
photographs of really difficult subjects. 

Captain Scott and Bowers applied themselves to the work 
with extraordinary enthusiasm. Indeed, Scott's zeal outran 
his capability ; he craved to be initiated into the uses of colour- 
filters and telephoto lenses before he had mastered an exposure- 
meter. I had to express my disapproval of such haste, and 
firmly decline to discuss these things until he could repeatedly 
show me half-a-dozen correctly exposed negatives from as 
many plates. When he had achieved this result under my 
guidance, he would sally forth alone with his camera. 

He would come back as pleased as a boy, telling me quite 
excitedly he had got some splendid things, and together we 
would begin to develop his plates — six in a dish. When five 
minutes or more had elapsed and no sign of a latent Image 
appeared on any of them, I knew something was wrong, and 
a conversation would follow, something In this wise : 

' Are you quite sure you did everything correctly ? ' 

' My dear fallow ' (a great expression this of Scott's), * I'm 
absolutely certain I did. I'm sure I made no mistake.' 

* Did you put in the plateholder ? ' * Yes/ - s 



168 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

* Did you draw the slide ? ' * Yeis.' 
'Did you set the shutter?' 'Yes.' 

* Did you release the shutter ? ' ' Yes.' 

* Did you take the cap off the lens ? ' * Yes.' 

Then he would rub his head, in that way he had, and 
admit : 

* No ! Good heavens ! I forgot. I could have sworn I 
had forgotten nothing.' 

He would then fill up his holders again, and be off once 
more. He fell repeatedly into every pitfall in his haste — 
with unfamiliar apparatus. One day he would forget to set 
the shutter, another time he would forget to release it, and 
each time he would vow not to make the same error again — 
and then go out and make some other. But I liked him all 
the more for his human impatience and his mistakes. How 
often have I not made them all myself, in my own early days 
with the camera ! 

Knowing the importance of the Polar and other journeys 
being thoroughly illustrated, I spared no effort to communicate 
every short cut to efficiency that I knew. With such excep- 
tional ' pupils,' remarkably fine results were soon being 
produced by all. When Scott was able at length to secure 
good results with colour-filters, orthochromatic plates and 
telephoto lenses, his pleasure was very real indeed; for then 
he knew he was capable of dealing with any subjects he would 
meet with on the Beardmore Glacier. Finally, he and 
Bowers were shown how to release the shutter by means of a 
long thread, so that all who reached the Pole might appear in 
the group to be made at the goal. 

More than once when I was out with Scott I was surprised 
to find that he seemed to feel the cold much more than I did. 
Standing waiting for an hour or more in zero temperatures is 
not altogether a pleasant experience; but when photographing 
it often has to be done, as the clouds are frequently troublesome, 
or the sun does not properly light the subject. Under 
such conditions Scott would vigorously stamp his feet to 
stimulate the circulation, when I was experiencing no dis- 



M 




THE AUTHOR IN THE ANTARCTIC. 



[169 



PHOTOGRAPHIC PITFALLS 169 

comfort. This was probably due to his not having taken such 
precautions as the nature of my work necessitated. 

I took every care to guard against cold myself. In zero 
weather I wore four pairs of thick woollen socks, and one 
pair of heavy goat-hair ski-socks ; I wrapped dried saenne grass 
round these, and over all wore a pair of finnesko, or Norwegian 
moccasins, made from the leg fur of reindeer. I wore two 
suits of thick ' Wolsey ' woollen underwear ; thick corduroy 
breeches and puttees ; a heavy woollen guernsey, a thick woollen 
coat and a flannel-lined leather coat; a woollen wrapper and a 
seal-skin fur helmet. On my hands I wore a pair of woollen 
gloves, a pair of thick woollen mits, and thick dog-fur mits 
reaching almost to the elbows. All of this clothing was 
absolutely necessary when standing about; but when pulHng 
my sledge, one or other, and sometimes both of the coats were 
discarded. When working the camera, I would remove both 
pairs of mits until my hands began to chill in the woollen 
gloves ; then bury them again in the warm fur, and beat them 
together until they glowed again. But my fingers often became 
so numbed that I had to nurse them back to life by thrusting 
my hands inside my clothing, in contact with the warm flesh. 
Scott one day told me : * This photographing is the coldest job 
I have ever struck, as well as the most risky ' — the latter 
because it so often happened that the best subjects were only 
to be secured in the most dangerous places. 

In summer it was, of course, not necessary to wear so much 
clothing. 

Photographing in such extremely low zero temperatures 
necessitates a great deal of care; there are many pitfalls, into 
all of which I plunged headlong. I had to pay dearly for 
some of the experience I gained. Perhaps a few of the troubles 
I learned to avoid may be of interest. I found that it was 
advisable always to leave cameras in their cases outside the 
Hut. There was sometimes a difference of more than one 
hundred degrees between the exterior and interior temperature. 
To bring cameras inside was to subject them to such condensa- 
tion that they became dripping wet as they came into the warm 



HHMflttBitt 



170 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

air. If for any reason it was necessary to bring a camera 
indoors, all this moisture had to be carefully wiped away; and 
the greatest care had to be taken to see that none got inside 
a lens. To so much as breathe upon a lens in the open air 
was to render that lens useless, for it instantly became covered 
with a film of ice which could not be removed. It had to be 
brought into warm air and thawed of¥ ; then wiped dry. Every 
trace of oil had to be removed from all working parts of 
kinematograph cameras and focal-plane shutters, as even some 
' non-freezing ' oil (which I had bought in Switzerland) froze. 
Lubricating had to be done with graphite. Several of my 
colour-filters became uncemented from the expansion and con- 
traction caused by changes of temperature, and were useless; 
and some of my shutters became so unreliable that I had to 
discard them and make all exposures by makeshift expedients. 

Great care was required to prevent plates being ruined 
before use. There was not sufficient room in the Hut to store 
my entire stock, so the supply in the dark-room was replenished, 
from time to time, from the stores outside in the snow. Plates 
had to be brought indoors gradually, in order to prevent 
unsightly markiilgs. This took two days. I placed them for 
a day in the vestibule; then left them at least another day in 
my room, to accustom them to the temperature before opening. 
No such care was necessary when taking plates into the open 
air. After exposure, plates could be brought indoors at once, 
if they were to be developed immediately. The first batch 
of English plates that I brought indoors and left in a warm 
place— before learning by experience that care was necessary 
— were completely ruined by wave-like markings. Even with 
all possible care markings would frequently appear ; but a brand 
of American plates — to which I am much attached, having 
found them very reliable, in every conceivable climate, during 
my travels — remained practically unaffected so long as they 
received reasonable care. Greater precautions had always to 
be taken with orthochromatic than with ordinary plates. 

Roll-films and film-packs stood every test magnificently, and 
yielded splendid results. There can be no question that, taking 



^__^ 






d 



A WONDERFUL ICEBERG 171 

into consideration the great saving in weight, reliability and 
extreme convenience, films are pre-eminently suited for travel 
and exploration photography. Eastman kinematograph film 
never failed to yield the finest possible results. 

Every film and plate exposed in the South, as well as many 
thousands of feet of kinematograph film, were developed in the 
Hut, with the maximum of convenience, by means of * Tabloid 
Rytol,' which I had chosen because of its proved excellence. 

To * thread ' a film into a kinematograph camera, in low 
temperatures, was an unpleasant job, for it was necessary to 
use bare fingers whilst doing so. Often when my fingers 
touched metal they became frostbitten. Such a frostbite feels 
exactly like a burn. Once, thoughtlessly, I held a camera screw 
for a moment in my mouth. It froze instantly to my lips, 
and took the skin off them when I removed it. On another 
occasion, my tongue came into contact with a metal part of 
one of my cameras, whilst moistening my lips as I was 
focussing. It froze fast instantaneously ; and to release myself 
I had to jerk it away, leaving the skin of the end of my tongue 
sticking to the camera, and my mouth bled so profusely that I 
had to gag it with a handkerchief. 

Shortly after the welcome daylight had come back, Captain 
Scott, with Lieut. Bowers, Dr. Simpson and Petty Ofiicer 
Evans, departed on a two weeks' reconnaissance of the western 
side of the Sound, to get his hand in for sledging after the long 
winter's rest, and to give our meteorologist an opportunity 
of experiencing the more strenuous side of Polar life. 

As soon as possible after the sun returned I made some 
photographs of the Castle Berg, which had so entranced me 
since its arrival off our cape the previous autumn. The 
weathering process, to which it had been subjected by the 
winter storms, had but added to its wonder. During the long 
months of darkness, I had often stood beneath its crystal 
bastions and marvelled at the skill with which the hand of 
Nature had built and chiselled the frozen walls into the 
semblance of a Norman tower. In the brilliant Polar moon- 
light, with the soft beams silvering each curve and ridge and 



172 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

angle of its structure, it had seemed a veritable fairy-tale in 
ice — a fitting palace for King Jack Frost, whose home I never 
doubted this to be. 

Now, as the sun flooded it with his light, the berg became 
of such gleaming beauty that even the most unimpressionable 
members of our community felt the influence of its spell. 
There was but one opinion concerning it amongst us — that it was 
the most wonderful iceberg ever reported in the Polar regions ; 
and, for my part, I never wearied of searching for some fresh 
picture in its ever-changing aspects. 

On one of the earliest of the sunny spring days, I went out, 
accompanied by Clissold, to do some work round about others 
of the stranded bergs. Now, in the ordinary course of things 
no one would want to climb an iceberg ; but fine views can some- 
times be obtained from such an unstable elevation. After 
visiting one of these vantage-points, we proceeded to another 
berg, which I had named The Matterhorn, because of its 
resemblance to the ' Lion of the Alps ' when viewed in profile. 
It had a long sloping back, which was easy to ascend, and by 
no means slippery, as it was well crusted with neve. 

Noticing that Clissold was inclined to be incautious, I 
admonished him — ^after the manner of Alpine guides with new 
climbers — that over confidence when on ice was but bravado, 
and only shown by those who fear nothing because they know 
nothing: that all experienced climbers recognise danger and 
respect it. I exhorted him not for a moment to be off his 
guard, and never to minimise risks. As I wanted him to pose 
in several views, to take no chances I made him put on my steel 
crampons (spiked climbing-irons which are fastened to the 
feet), and I lent him my ice-axe. There should be no danger 
whatever of slipping when so outfitted. 

After taking several photographs on this berg, I descended 
to the sea-ice to secure a final plate or two of Clissold standing 
at the top of the slope. When this was done, I shouted to him 
to come down, and then packed my apparatus on to the sledge, 
and pulled off a short distance to wait for him. The day was 
very calm and sunny, and as I sat on the sledge, bathed in 




CLISSOLD ON THE MATTERHORN BERG. 




E. L. NELSON AT HIS BIOLOGICAL ' HOLE. 



[173 



CLISSOLD FALLS FROM AN ICEBERG 173 

the grateful sunshine, I heard a light thud, but thought 
nothing of it, as fragments often fall from icebergs. Clissold, 
however, neither appeared nor answered my shouts, and I 
began to get uneasy; then I recalled the thud of a few minutes 
earlier with a chill of apprehension. I ran back to the berg, 
now thoroughly alarmed; and when I saw my ice-axe at the 
foot, sticking upright in the snow, I realised the worst. Ten 
yards further lay Clissold on his back. From the position of 
the ice-axe, so far from him, he must have slid thirty or forty 
feet down a steep slope, and then fallen sheer, about eighteen 
feet, on to the hard ice. 

He exhibited not the shghtest sign of life. I held him 
in my arms, calling him frantically by name and imploring him 
to speak to me ; but his head fell back lifelessly, whilst his half- 
open eyes showed only the white. No breath came from his 
lips, and his heart seemed to have ceased to beat. I felt his 
neck, his limbs, his back and body, but could detect no broken 
bones. Almost distracted at such a dreadful ending to our 
interesting afternoon, I knew not what to do. I was nearly 
two miles from the Hut, with poor Clissold apparently dead. 

For some time — I don't know how long; it may have been 
minutes only, though it seemed an hour — I tried to revive 
him by chafing his neck and hands and constantly speaking to 
him; but in vain. There was no symptom of life. I dared 
not apply known methods of restoring animation, for fear that, 
if he still lived, his ribs might be broken and might thereby 
injure his lungs. And I could not leave him to seek help, for 
it was twenty below zero, and if he were alive he would 
inevitably freeze to death. As I was deliberating what to 
do in this dilemma, a great bubble came slowly from his lips, 
and burst. Overjoyed at this evidence of life, feeble as it 
was, I carefully dragged him to a soft place in the snow, 
stripped myself of my coats and muffler, and wrapped them 
about him; then I ran for help. 

As I rounded the corner of the berg, I saw Nelson at his 
' hole ' about half a mile away. I ran towards him, gesticu- 
lating wildly, and shouting to him for help. But he only waved 



174 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

to me, and retired behind his snow wall to get on with his 
work. (He told me, afterwards, he thought I was joking, 
because of my unusual antics in the effort to make him under- 
stand.) As I drew nearer, he appeared again; and now 
realising I was in real distress, he ran to meet me. Greatly 
agitated and out of breath, I briefly explained what had 
happened. Then he raced back to his shelter, and telephoned 
(fortunately a telephone had been installed there a few days 
previously) to the Hut for a rescue party immediately to be 
sent to the scene. 

We both ran back to the berg, where Clissold lay apparently 
lifeless; but when we raised his head and called him, he faintly 
moaned, and uttered the words ' My back ! My back ! ' Then 
he became unconscious again. We were thankful, however, 
to know he still lived. 

Captain Scott, who had taken a short cut across the cape, 
was the first on the scene from the Hut. He was greatly 
distressed to find Clissold in such a plight; by that time, 
however, the poor man was breathing feebly, but regularly. 
Soon, the rescue party came up with a sledge, and a sleeping- 
bag, which they cut open and wrapped round the injured man ; 
then they took him home as rapidly as possible. 

That evening was an anxious one, as for a time it could 
not be ascertained if Clissold had been hurt internally. He 
came to his senses for a few minutes, but he was suffering 
so acutely that Dr. Wilson injected morphia. Then he 
relapsed into unconsciousness. A careful examination proved 
that no bones were broken; but there were bad contusions 
of the back and head, and severe concussion. For many days 
the poor man lay in pain, and it was a great relief to all when 
he was out of danger : perhaps especially so to me, for though 
I had taken every precaution to avoid any mishap, I felt very 
keenly my responsibility in the matter. 

It was nearly six weeks ere Clissold was himself again. He 
was never able to recall anything about his accident, beyond 
remembering that he slipped. The rest was blank, until he 
came-to in the Hut. There were some jagged lumps of ice 



tti 



A NARROW ESCAPE 175 

liear-by where he lay. Had he fallen on to those he must 
inevitably have been killed, so, all things considered, the accident 
had a very fortunate ending. To Clissold's lasting regret, 
however, he had not recovered in time to accompany the 
Motor Party on the Pole journey, to which, for his mechanical 
knowledge, he had been appointed. 



^^mgi 



CHAPITER XVI 
THE START FOR THE POLE 

The return of the sun had been a bracing stimulant to all. 
The vicinity of the Hut was now a hive of industry, and 
everyone went about his work with buoyant spirit and 
confidence in the future. Much had been accomplished during 
the winter; but the daily increasing altitude of the sun reminded 
us how much yet remained to be done before all was ready for 
that tremendous journey which was to plant the Union Jack at 
the South Pole. 

When the Leader had completed all his plans, and had 
figured out all requirements for man and beast, these were 
checked and counter-checked, and finally submitted to the 
examination of Bowers. Scott wrote : * In the transport 
department, in spite of all the care I have taken to make the 
details of my plan clear by lucid explanation, I find that Bowers 
is the only man on whom I can thoroughly rely to carry out 
the work without mistake, with its array of figures.' 

Then innumerable linen bags were filled with rations — 
pemmican, butter, sugar and cocoa — ^and put up with biscuits, 
into packages sufficient to last four men for one week. Pem- 
mican is a preparation of the finest dried lean beef, ground 
to powder and mixed with 60 per cent, of beef fat. It is the 
mainstay for the support of life in all Polar exploration. It 
is eaten as a thick soup, stiffened with biscuit, and, whenever 
possible, with chopped seal meat. This is called * Hoosh.' 

Sledges and tents and Primus stoves were then overhauled, 
and footgear and clothing carefully examined. Nothing was 
left to chance. 

The ponies were now exercised for longer hours, to harden 

176 



I 




DOG-TEAM RESTING BY AN ICEBERG. 



U77 



THE DOGS 177 

them: and, for the same object, the dogs made several trips 
to Hut Point with advance loads of stores. The dogs were 
strange beasts. They harked back to a wild ancestry — wolves. 
Some of them even now were more like wolves than dogs; 
others seemed nearer akin to coyotes — with their sharp snouts 
and foxy-looking eyes. Only in their massive forelegs did 
they resemble the heavier North American ' husky ' ; but they 
made no bones about undertaking a husky's work. Though 
the biggest of them turned the scale at under 80 lbs., a team 
of eleven would sometimes pull a load of 1,000 lbs. to Hut 
Point, fifteen miles away, in four hours; whilst with lighter 
loads they would make the journey in ninety minutes. They 
were always ready for work; indeed, they seemed to regard 
work as the only sort of fun to be had in these regions — 
and they were not far wrong. 

If anyone appeared at the door of the Hut with dog-harness 
in his hand — or anything that looked at all like harness — 
every dog would yelp and whine and howl with delight, in the 
hope of being the first to be harnessed up. Loafing was 
abhorrent to them — to judge from the joy they manifested 
when work was in sight. Sometimes, however, a dog would 
become sluggish and fail to pull his weight in the team. 
Whenever this occurred — either from unwillingness or fatigue 
— as soon as a dog saw his team-mate's efforts slackening, he 
would jump over the main trace and give him a sharp nip, 
just to remind him of his duty, and then drop back into his 
place without losing his stride. 

The dogs were driven tandem fashion — each pair pulling 
from opposite sides of the long main trace. It was not the 
business of the leading dog to do much pulling, however; he 
was there to use his head, and was chosen for his sagacity and 
reasoning powers. His duty was to see that the commands of 
the driver were obeyed, and to set the example to the others 
by immediately obeying them. Independently of such 
directions, the leader was expected to use his own judgment 
— to select the best ground for travelling over, and to avoid 
the rough patches and sastrugi. 
12 



178 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

The best work can be got out of a dog-team by driving in 
rapid bursts, with frequent stops for a brief rest. After 
cleverly negotiating a piece of bad ground, at the next stop 
the leader would look round for the approval of his driver 
and team-mates. If, however, he failed to obey with alacrity 
and to exercise good judgment, he was reduced to the ranks, 
and another of the tean^ exalted in his stead. A dog so 
degraded would show by his demeanour that he felt the dis- 
grace much more than the labour entailed — which he under- 
took willingly enough. The promoted dog would immediately 
adapt himself to his new duties, knowing that he was now 
expected to use his brain rather than his strength. 

The leader was instructed entirely by shouts, delivered in 
Russian — the only language the dogs understood. He was 
simply told whether to go to the right, or to the left, or 
straight on, or to stop. A good leader obeyed instantly. 

Well-trained, reliable leaders seldom showed any lack of 
initiative; but it encouraged the team to have an occasional 
change, as it inspired other dogs with the hope that some day 
they might be promoted to the post of honour. Such changes 
were advisable, too, to make provision against possible accident 
to the leaders. Most of the dogs, however, were more fitted 
for pulling than for leadership. 

Harnessing up a team, when fresh, was a job which required 
clever management. Unless the sledge was securely * anchored,' 
the dogs would assuredly bolt in their excitement; then there 
would be the very dickens to pay. The sight of penguins 
on the ice would send them mad with the lust for blood. When 
these extraordinary creatures were about, the obedience to 
command, reliability and self-restraint of the leading dog were 
put as much to the test as the driver's skill and control over his 
team. The leader would studiously avert his eyes from 
temptation, and exert his utmost strength to pull the team away 
from the squawking sirens; whilst the driver would have to 
put forth equal strength to ' brake ' the sledge with his * chui- 
stick ' — ^an indispensable part of his equipment without which 
the team would be quite unmanageable. 



■■I 




KRISAROVITSA. 




VIDA. 



OSMAN. 



[179 



■'S^.'.-jMl^ailttttHtm 



DOG CHARACTERISTICS 179 

Both Meares and Dimitri were fine drivers, and brought 
their teams safely through many a dangerous predicament. 
Once Meares' team got completely out of hand at the unpre- 
cedented sight, to the dogs, of a whale ' breaching ' in a near-by 
lead. Maddened by the sight, they made for the whale, and 
it looked as though the whole team would dash into the sea; 
but Meares' fine management of his animals saved them from 
disaster. 

Whenever a dog managed to break loose from his kennel, as 
sometimes happened, he would invariably go off baiting a 
seal, and harry the unfortunate creature to death if it could 
not find safety by slipping into the water. 

During the winter, one of the dogs, Julick, disappeared. A 
month later, when a comrade and I were taking a walk round the 
icebergs about 10 o'clock one night, we talked about the dog, 
wondering what had become of him. Just then we noticed a 
dog running towards us from the west. He came up with 
every evidence of unrestrained delight, and to our astonish- 
ment we recognised the lost Julick, Where had he been all 
that time ? We never knew ; but it was not difficult to deduce 
what he had been up to, for his coat was matted with blood. 
He was very thin, and seemed pleased enough to be taken 
home again. 

Osman was the head dog of the pack; and, unhke many of 
his subordinates — some of which would snarl at everyone 
except their drivers, and were ever ready to sink their teeth 
in anyone they took a dislike to — ^he was gentle and good- 
natured. Osman was the dog that had been washed overboard 
in the gale in the Sixties, and saved by one of the seamen 
when carried aboard again on the crest of the next wave. He 
had been the fiercest dog of all, when in New Zealand; but 
that adventure seemed to have a sobering effect on him. 
Henceforth he regarded us all as friends. He was now a 
sociable, docile animal, and exhibited obvious pleasure when 
anyone exchanged a few friendly words with him. With his 
massive build and magnificent head, he looked every inch the 
chief he was ; and his great strength and wonderful reasoning 



HHiiHHHa^MH^iMi 



180 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

powers qualified him for the important part he took in our 
adventure. 

Vida, the leader of the second team, was another superb dog, 
with a head suggestive of a parentage of Chow and St. 
Bernard. He was equally as strong as Osman, but, though 
as fine of appearance, he had none of Osman's amiable charac- 
teristics; he distrusted everyone, except those with whom he 
was brought into constant contact. Vida was a proud, uncon- 
descending creature, seemingly fully conscious of his own 
strength and fitness for his work; and conscious, too, of his 
ability to hold his own in combat with any of his associates. 

Stareek was another leading dog, used alternately with 
Vida. His head was almost as fine as Osman's, but with more 
of the Eskimo about him. He was gentle as a lamb to those 
whom he regarded as friends, and had a lovable habit of 
licking his lips and wagging his tail wildly whenever anyone 
talked to him; and then he would lie on his back with his 
tongue out, and paw his face with pleasure. 

Tresor was perhaps the handsomest of all the dogs. With 
his beautiful fluffy coat and black ears, he was more like an 
Eskimo than any of the others. But with so many good- 
looking animals in the pack, opinions differed as to which was 
our Adonis. Meares considered that Krisarovitsa took the 
palm for looks, and he certainly appeared to be purer to a 
type than the rest. ' Kris ' was undoubtedly a beautiful 
creature, and so was Volk — who regarded me with contempt 
while I was taking his portrait. Then there was the sturdy, 
black Lappy — playful as a puppy — who didn't realise the 
sharpness of his teeth in the ardour and impetuousness of his 
hefty caresses. Hohol was another handsome animal, and so 
was Koomagai. Brodiaga made friends with no one, but had 
an angry snarl for all; he would wrinkle his nose, curl his 
lip, and show his great canine teeth threateningly whenever 
anyone drew near. And I must not omit to mention Kesoi the 
one-eyed, and Bieleglas, and Biele-Noogis, and the wolfish 
Ostrenos — ^and of them all Ostrenos was nearest to a wolf, 
with his long, treacherous head and narrow eyes. 



A BORN HORSEMAN 181 

There were a dozen or more others, and each of the wild 
creatures had his own peculiar appearance, individuality and 
characteristics. No two were alike, except in their eagerness 
for work, their thirst for the blood of seals and penguins, and 
their readiness to fly at each other's throats on the slightest 
provocation — or even without any pretext whatever. 

When Scott and Meares had almost miraculously escaped 
with their lives from the crevasse adventure on the Great 
Ice Barrier, in February, two dogs had even fought fiercely 
whenever they swtmg within biting distance of each other, 
whilst suspended by their harness in the abyss. The other 
dogs, on being rescued from their dangerous plight, immediately 
made for the second team, standing by, and engaged in furious 
conflict with them — so that rescue work had to be stopped for 
a time until the combatants were separated. 

Of the nineteen ponies with which we had left New Zealand, 
ten had survived the perils and hardships of the past year. Of 
these ten, two are deserving of special mention — Nobby and 
Christopher. Nobby, the prettiest of all, was the pony that 
had such a narrow escape from the jaws of the Killer whales 
in March. He was Dr. Wilson's special protege, and 
invariably presented a better-groomed appearance than the 
others; for, as becomes a lover of animals and an artist, 
Nobby's owner usually kept his mane and forelock nicely 
combed and plaited. 

Christopher was the strongest and worst tempered. Captain 
Oates always looked after this pony himself. He would let 
no one else take the risk — for Christopher was vicious and 
dangerous. It usually took three or four men to harness 
him, and he always had to be thrown, and his head held 
down, before he could be ' hitched-up ' to a sledge. Only a 
born horseman could manage such a wicked little brute; and 
that is what Titus was — a born master of horses. His 
patience and imperturbability were inexhaustible. He never 
got angry or excited; but always talked to Christopher in 
calm, reassuring tones — no matter how wildly the sinful animal 
reared and plunged and lashed out with his hoofs. Titus 



182 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

certainly took his life in his hands every time he harnessed 
Christopher, and owed his immunity from harm to his own 
skill, agility and fearlessness. 

Man had to be hardened as well as beast; so to get fit 
we played football for an hour, two or three times a week. We 
always played ' Soccer,' and were able to put two full elevens 
into the field — the field being the frozen sea, and the goalposts 
-bamboo poles. The teams were well-matched, and, as the full- 
backs on each side were well up to their work, the goalkeepers 
usually had a chilly time of it — with the temperature thirty or 
forty degrees below zero, and often a crisp breeze blowing. 

The hard crusted snow which covered the ice gave a good 
footing ; but falls were apt to occur just as they do in football 
matches anywhere else. It was unfortunate that the most 
serious fall happened the day I was taking moving-pictures 
of a game. Debenham fell headlong, and badly strained his 
knee. This was something in the nature of a disaster, for 
he was to have started, two days later, with a party, led by 
Taylor, on a second geological journey to the western side of 
the Sound. The accident delayed the start three weeks, during 
most of which time Debenham lay on his back, to give his knee 
complete rest. It transpired that Debenham had had trouble 
with his knee before, and he should not have taken any 
risks with it. 

This was the third mishap that had occurred when I was 
photographing — ^first Gran's fall when ski-ing; then Clissold's 
fall from the iceberg, and now Debenham was hors de combat. 
Also, I had had several narrow escapes myself, since my 
adventure with the Killer whales. The whale incident had, 
of course, inspired numerous quips about Jonah; and Taylor 
had invented a new verb, consisting of the first syllable of my 
name — ' to pont,' meaning ' to pose, until nearly frozen, in all 
sorts of uncomfortable positions ' for my photographs. This 
latest mishap revived all the former quizzing about the evil-eye 
propensities of my camera, and I was once again the butt for 
Tio end of twitting about ' the peril of " ponting " for Ponko ' 
— the latter being my nickname. The more I protested — that 




Lashly. 



B. Day. Lt. Evans. 

THE MOTOR PARTY. 



Hooper. 





THE AUTHOR EXERCISING. 



CAPT. SCOTT WITH THE FOOTBALL. 



182] 



mm 



A SERIOUS MISHAP 183 

I had kinematographed Gran's feat at his own special request; 
that I had taken every possible precaution to ensure safety when 
out with Clissold; that Debenham had fallen twenty minutes 
after I had taken my film, and instanced the scores of occasions 
on which nothing had occurred to mar the success of my pictures 
— the more persistently these crimes were fastened on to me. 

But such railleries were always good-natured, and everyone 
in the Hut was subjected to them whenever the slighest occasion 
presented. No opportunity was missed of poking fun at one 
another, and everyone hastened to give as good as he received 
whenever he had a chance of ' getting his own back.' The 
saving grace of humour served us in good stead always. 

Day and Lashly, who had been busy giving the motor 
tractors a final overhaul during the past few days, now pro- 
ceeded to bring their machines from their winter shelter for 
a trial spin on the ice. It really seemed that things were 
beginning to move, in every sense, when once again we heard 
the roar of their open exhausts — that always reminded me 
so of the Brooklands race-track. I got my kinematograph 
bearing on the scene, as the first of the weird-looking things 
rolled, in an unearthly manner, out of its snow-walled retreat, 
and lolloped clumsily over the uneven ground towards the 
frozen sea. It crept over a rise, and then headed downhill 
towards the tide-crack. There was some rough and lumpy 
ice at this point, and as the tractor slumped into it and over 
it, the rear end came down with a nasty jar, and the engine 
stopped. Oil poured out of the back-axle, and on examination 
the aluminium casing was found to have cracked. Dismay 
entered the hearts of the onlookers — of whom I was one — 
at the obvious serious nature of this fresh mishap; but for 
some unaccountable reason this stroke of bad luck was not 
laid to the charge of the evil influence of my camera — much 
to my relief. The axle was immediately dismantled, and our 
motor-engineer and mechanic at once set to work on it. When, 
two days later, the axle-casing — repaired in a remarkably neat 
and workmanlike manner, and better and stronger than ever 
— was once more in place, I realised that Day and Lashly were 



■^asm 



184 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

men whom nothing could daunt, and whose resource and skill 
were equal to any emergency. 

The time was now drawing nigh for the start of the great 
journey that was the primary object of the Expedition, and a 
week before the day set for the departure of the Southern Party, 
the motor contingent set out. One of the tractors was driven 
by Day, the other by Lashly ; Lieut. Evans and Hooper accom- 
panying them — their duty being to walk ahead of the machines 
and steer them by a short length of rope attached to a pole 
in front. Evans was the navigator of the party. As the speed 
of the motors usually did not exceed three miles per hour, their 
conductors were not hard pressed to keep ahead of them. 

In these regions steering gear would be an unnecessary com- 
plication. Whenever the steersman desired to change the 
course of his machine, he simply pulled it round by the rope. 

Each tractor hauled three large sledges. Three were laden 
with stores to be depoted on the Barrier for the use of the 
Southern Party; two with petrol and lubricating oils, and 
the sixth with the Motor Party's own rations and camping 
equipment. But the party didn't get far the first day, as 
further mechanical adjustments were found necessary before 
they had rounded the cape. This delayed them until the 
following morning, October 24th, when the motors got well 
away, and provided fine subjects for the kinematograph, as 
they wallowed leisurely towards the southern horizon. 

A few days before the start of the Southern Party, Captain 
Scott had informed us about his instructions to Lieut. Pennell, 
now commanding the Terra Nova. There was small likelihood 
of the Polar Party being back at Hut Point ere it would be 
necessary for the ship to return to New Zealand again. The 
ship was therefore to leave McMurdo Sound not later than the 
end of the first week in March, or earlier if in danger of 
being frozen in. H by chance the party were back, some of 
the Expedition would return home; but, if all went well, it was 
Scott's desire to remain, with the majority of the members, 
in the South for another year, to continue other important 
exploration work. Five of our number would, in an}' case. 






^ UNCLE BILL'S REQUEST 185 

be going home — Simpson, whose leave of absence from the 
Indian Meteorological Office at Simla would have expired; 
Taylor, who had to return to his work in Australia; Day and 
Meares, who could not remain another year; and myself, as 
my work would be finished by the end of the summer, all 
my kinematograph supplies exhausted, and I should require 
many months in which to superintend the finishing of my 
results for publication. 

The evening before the start of the main party, Uncle Bill 
handed me a parcel which contained all his sketches. He asked 
me to take charge of it, and to deliver it to his wife, telling 
me it was his earnest hope that we might have a joint exhibition 
of our work — his sketches and my photographs. He gave me 
carte blanche to arrange this as I liked — not to wait for the 
return of the remainder of the Expedition, if I considered it 
expedient to exhibit the pictures earlier. I was much pleased 
at this expression of friendship; but I told Uncle Bill that 
under no circumstances would I arrange for anything of the 
kind before the Expedition had returned, and that I could 
ask for no greater honour than to be associated with him in 
such an exhibition. I preferred, however, not to take the 
responsibility of being the bearer of the valuable parcel, and 
arranged to hand it to Lieut. Pennell, to be placed in the 
Terra Nova's safe, and thence forwarded home by registered 
parcels post,* 

I was anxious to accompany the Polar Party as far as 
possible; but Captain Scott explained that it would be quite 
impossible to transport my heavy apparatus. Every ounce 
that could be carried on the sledges, other than camping 
equipment, would be food. '' Everything must give way 
to food,' he said. After the party had reached the Great 
Ice Barrier, there would be nothing to photograph but the 

* Owing to the death of Dr. Wilson his pictures could never be 
reproduced for sale, as he had intended. His widow, therefore, con- 
sidered it better that they should be exhibited separately. The 
whole beautiful series of his water colours was shown at the Alpine 
Club, whilst my photographs were exhibited at the Fine Art Society's 
galleries, London. 



186 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

level plain of boundless, featureless ice, with the long caravan 
stringing out towards the horizon. Besides, too, work of more 
importance awaited me elsewhere — in recording the seal and 
bird life, which he regarded as of the highest value to zoology. 
I realised the sound reason of this, but at my earnest request 
it was arranged that I should drive by dog-team to Hut Point 
to record the start from the Discovery hut; and thence on to 
the Great Ice Barrier to secure some final films. Beyond tliat, it 
would be impossible for me to go. I rejoiced, however, that 
I was to have an opportunity of accompanying the party, if 
only for twenty-five miles. 

October 31st, 1911, the long awaited day, came at last. The 
first of the ponies got off in the morning; then, at 4 o'clock, I 
took my place behind Meares on a dog-sledge, and we were soon 
skimming swiftly over the frozen sea, to the soft pattering of 
many dogs' paws on the crusted snow. 

To drive by dog-team over the frozen sea, in the crisp Polar 
air, is one of the most exhilarating experiences imaginable. 
The yelping of the excited creatures as they are harnessed up ; 
the whining and howling in pleasurable anticipation as they 
strain at the traces, impatient to be off ; the mad stampede with 
which they get away, when the driver gives the word to go; 
the rush of the keen air into one's face; the swish of the 
sledge-runners, and the sound of forty paws pat-a-pat-a-patting 
on the crackling snow, is something that cannot be described. 
It must he experienced. 

As we rounded the cape and made for the west end of 
Razorback Island, the whole great mass of Erebus was on our 
left, with its ten miles of seracs and crevassed glaciers tumbling 
down to the sea in the wildest confusion. And on our right 
the beautiful Lister massif, seventy miles away, heaved 
from below the western horizon far up into the skies. We 
sped past the imprisoned icebergs, and, as we neared Razorback, 
we saw many seals lying about under the lee of the land. The 
sight filled me with hopeful anticipation, for it was my intention 
to spend much time there during the next few weeks. With 
occasional stops to give the willing dogs a breather, we pressed 





^^ 












k 






L»: 


.:-■-- - 


- -^ -.f"- 




^^^i^- 













HUT POINT. 




P. O. Evans. Lt. Bowers. Dr. Wilson. 

A MEAL ON THE MARCH. 



Capt. Scott. 



[187 



AN INSPIRING SIGHT 187 

on past what remained of Glacier Tongue since the break-up 
of the phenomenon in March; past the Turk's Head, Hutton 
CHffs and Castle Rock, until Hut Point loomed before us. 

The snow-clad promontory is a most impressive sight. On 
its summit stands a great white wooden cross, erected to the 
memory of George T. Vince, one of the men of the Discovery 
Expedition, who lost his way in a blizzard, and his life by falling 
over the near-by ice-cliffs. This farmost symbol of the 
Christian faith on earth, gleaming golden in the evening sun- 
light against the leaden southern sky, seemed like some guardian 
angel at the threshold of the Forbidden Land beyond — remind- 
ing those who would venture further that in the midst of life 
they are in death, yet holding out the hope of Life Eternal. 

I saw nothing more inspiring in the Great White South — 
nor have I seen in all the world besides — than that simplest and 
most sacred of emblems on that snow-clad hill, raised in honour 
of a seaman of the British Navy, who, in this remote corner 
of the world, died in the performance of his duty. 

We reached the Discovery hut at 6.45, having made the 
journey in well under three hours, and soon had a hot meal 
sizzling on the fine blubber stove that Meares had built of 
bricks and a sheet of boiler-iron during his previous visits. 
Three hours later, the vanguard of the Southern Party arrived 
— Dr. Atkinson and P.O. Keohane, with the ponies Jehu and 
Jimmy Pig. The rest of the party, who started a day later, 
drifted in during the following afternoon — in order, P.O. Evans 
with Snatcher; P.O. Crean with Bones; Bowers with Victor; 
Oates with Christopher; Wright with Chinaman; Scott and 
Anton with Snippets; Cherry-Garrard with Michael; Wilson 
with Nobby, and Dimitri with his dog team. All were housed 
by 5.15 — fourteen men and four ponies in the hut, and six 
ponies in the stable — the dogs, of course, being berthed outside, 
as usual. 

Though we were early astir the next morning, the ponies 
did not begin to get off until 8 p.m., as it was intended 
to march by night, in order to give the animajs the benefit of 
the warmest hours of the twenty- four for resting. I secured 



188 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

kinematograph records of the various units, and at midnight 
started by dog-team with Dimitri, for Safety Camp, on the 
Great Ice Barrier. 

Captain Scott had counselled me to be very careful not to 
permit the dogs to get too near the ponies, as he was concerned 
lest the animals should take fright and bolt. When we 
approached the Barrier I had some difficulty in making the 
Russian, Dimitri, understand about not getting too near the 
ponies; he objected to keeping too far out on account of bad 
crevasses near White Island. However, he drove carefully up 
the slope from the frozen sea on to the greatest ice-sheet on 
earth, and we saw the whole party, about a mile ahead — the 
foremost units preparing to move on, after a short rest. Dimitri 
anchored his team a hundred yards away, and all was well. I 
was in time to have a final meal with them before kinemato- 
graphing the start of the first Barrier march of the whole 
cavalcade, by the light of the cloud-hidden midnight sun. 

At last came that never-to-be-forgotten moment when I must 
part from Scott and Wilson, who formed the rearguard. It 
was very cold, and a biting wind was blowing; and ice and 
sky mingled in the South, into which the foremost units of the 
caravan were rapidly disappearing. On the bosom of that 
vast wilderness of ice, I could think only of the unknown perils 
and hardships that lay ahead of them; and when I tried to 
speak, I could not voice the words I wished to say. I could 
only look into Scott's eyes and grip his hand, as he wished 
me ' Good-bye and good luck ! ' with my work. But I felt he 
understood. 

And then mutely I turned to Uncle Bill, who was smiling as 
he always smiled. I think he was a little touched himself, as 
reassuringly he laid a hand upon my shoulder, and said : 
* Cheer-up, Ponko ! Good luck ! ' They were the last words 
the splendid fellow ever spoke to me, and I shall always 
remember him with that smile upon his fine, strong face. 

As they plodded beside their ponies away into ' the stark 
and sullen solitudes that sentinel the Pole,' I recorded the 
scene in moving-pictures, and Uncle Bill looked back and waved 



INTO THE GREAT ALONE 189 

to me. I stood, with a feeling of depression and loneliness 
at heart, until they shrank into the distance, half wondering 
if ever I should see them again. 

But I had gazed for the last time on the faces of my fearless 
Chief and friend. They were destined never to return from 
the heart of the Great Alone. 

Death met them on their homeward way. 



CHAPTER XVII 
THE POLAR SUMMER 

With a final lingering look at the rearguard of the Southern 
Party shrivelling into that desolate wild, Dimitri and I got on 
to our sledge and headed back for Hut Point. It was 2 a.m. 
with a cold, keen wind blowing; and long ere we had reached 
the Discovery hut our faces wore heavy masks of ice. 

On the morning of the third day after the departure of the 
pony units, Meares and Dimitri harnessed the excited dogs, 
mounted their heavily-laden sledges, and started off for the 
Barrier — expecting to catch up with the main Southern Party 
two days later. 

Soon after seeing them off, Anton and I started at 10.30 a.m. 
for Cape Evans — man-hauling our sledge. The day was clear 
and sunny, but heavy drift during the preceding twenty- 
four hours had made the surface of the sea-ice very bad. 
Moreover, it was but 10° below freezing and the weather 
calm, so that the heat of the sun became quite oppressive and 
the snow soft and sticky. Before we had gone a quarter of 
a mile, we found our work cut out in places to so much as 
move the heavy twelve-foot sledge with its 400 lbs. load of 
photographic gear and camping equipment — ^and we hoped to 
cover over fifteen miles that day! Sometimes we came to 
welcome runs of clean ice, and sped along at a merry pace — 
the sledge seeming a mere featherweight. Then we would 
run into a great, sticky snowfield again, and the sledge 
immediately became like a deadweight mass of lead. Warm 
weather like this certainly has its disadvantages when sledging 
in these regions, and we should have been glad if the ' mercury ' 
had dropped ten degrees nearer the zero mark. 

190 



A STRENUOUS DAY 191 

That was the most strenuous day's work Anton or I ever 
did in our lives. After struggling on until 10.30 p.m., we had 
covered eleven miles ; but it became obvious that we could not 
get home that night. When about half-a-mile south of 
Razorback Island, Anton told me he could pull no further. I 
was not sorry to hear it, for I was done myself with 
the labour of the past twelve hours; I therefore decided to 
camp. After we had pitched the tent and had some cocoa and 
food, I was preparing to turn-in in my sleeping-bag, when 
Anton gave me to understand, in his broken English, that he 
did not like the idea of sleeping out on the ice, as the weather 
looked threatening in the south. He asked me if I would 
permit him to walk on to the Hut — about three miles away. 

I tried to laugh away his fears; but, knowing his highly 
superstitious nature, and seeing that he really dreaded the idea 
of sleeping on the ice — though the night was light as day — 
I consented to his making his way home, telling him to come 
back to help me in the morning. I watched him through 
my glass until he reached the land; then, weary with the 
effort of the day, I crept into my warm reindeer bag, and 
slept. 

I was awakened a couple of hours later by the drumming 
of the wind against the tent, and, on looking out, saw that 
heavy drift was blowing. It was a soothing sound, however, 
and lulled me to sleep again. I dreamed about music and 
singing and the gramophone. The singing grew louder and 
louder, and the tune was strangely familiar. Then I distinctly 
heard and knew the words. The dream became so real that 
I woke up, and, emerging from my sleeping-bag, found Gran 
and Nelson sitting beside me, singing * We All Walked Into 
The Shop.' 

It was midday, and as the drift had died down they had 
come out to help me, and had considerately chosen this manner 
of rousing me pleasantly from my slumber. The weather was 
too overcast and threatening to do any photography at the 
Razorback seal rookery, so we packed my sledge and returned 
to Cape Evans. 



192 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

I was now free to carry out as much of my programme for 
the summer as the weather and other circumstances would 
permit. Captain Scott had finally discussed this with me during 
our last evening at the Discovery hut. It would be advisable 
to secure the seal records as soon as possible, as it was now 
the calving season. Then several visits to the Adelie penguin 
colony at Cape Royds would be necessary, to record different 
stages of the incubating of the eggs and the brooding of the 
chicks. There was also a lot of scenic work yet to be done. 
After finishing this, if it should be possible to do so, I could 
take Clissold and Anton and make a journey to the Koettlitz 
Glacier — the great ice-river at the foot of Mt. Discovery which 
was named after the surgeon and botanist of Scott's 1901-4 
Expedition. 

As matters turned out, I was unable to accomplish the entire 
programme. Owing to much delay by imusually bad weather ; 
to the fact that it was found advisable to send a further party 
out to the Barrier with supplies, and to the early breaking up 
of the ice in the west of the Sound — to my lasting regret it was 
impossible to make the journey to the glacier in the Western 
Mountains. 

I found the Antarctic a very disappointing region for photo- 
graphy. It was exasperating to find the weather so often 
thwart one when half-way to some goal — for a journey to a 
point even a few miles distant could not be undertaken lightly. 
My camera and kinematograph equipment weighed more than 
200 lbs. ; and when visiting a point a few miles away it was 
wise to take camping kit and food for several days, lest a 
blizzard should descend upon us. Pulling a load of 400 lbs. 
deadweight, two men could not maintain a greater pace than 
one mile per hour; and if the surface were bad their progress 
might be much slower. Because of the serious losses to our 
transport, there was seldom a man available to help me with 
the photographic work, whereas in fine weather I could have 
used the services of two constantly. However, notwith- 
standing the many impediments with which Nature sought to 
baulk one, it was surprising how much could be accomplished 



GLORIOUS SKYSCAPES 198 

by persistent effort, and by grasping every opportunity she 
gave whilst in more amicable humour. 

As soon as possible after my return from Hut Point, I 
proceeded with the illustrating of the life and habits of the 
seals, the Adelie penguins and the skua-gulls — on which I 
had already made a good beginning the previous summer. 
Before the present season was over, this work was completed, 
and I offer some observations on these interesting creatures 
in subsequent chapters of this volume. 

In the intervals of studying and recording impressions of 
the Nature life about me, I was ever mindful of the Polar 
scenes midst which these creatures found existence. There 
was no lack of subjects for the camera, and I might have made 
a hundred pictures from the door of our Hut without directing 
my lens elsewhere than into the heavens. 

At one season or another there are wonderful scenes to 
be witnessed in the atmosphere from almost any land on earth. 
I have many a time marvelled at the beauty of the cloud- 
scapes suspended over London — ^yet I seldom saw a face uplifted 
to behold them, except at sunset. How many ever look at the 
wonders of the heavens at noon ? 

The pageantry of the skies was no less beautiful here, at 
the end of the earth, than in temperate and tropical lands. 
The desolate tract of ice that swept from our door to the 
northern horizon was an inspiring foreground for, many a 
glorious transformation scene. Sometimes great billows and 
bellying spinnakers of cumulus would roll over the glacier 
ridge between Erebus and Cape Barne, and pile high up into 
the ether in flowing convolutions of vapour that gleamed whiter 
than the snows below in the midday sunshine. At other times 
beautiful combinations of cirro-cumulus would fill the skies; 
whilst often — too often — a canopy of stratus was suspended 
like a shroud above us. Sometimes, too, a great forbidding 
nimbus, heavily charged with snow, would sweep down over 
the ice, and race towards us with crested name above, and 
all blue and iron-grey below. It was well to waste no time 
in seeking shelter when these ominous confederates of death 
13 



194 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

were unleashed, for a lost wayfarer's life would be of small 
account if caught unprepared in the raging blizzards that 
accompanied them. 

The most beautiful clouds of all were cirrus. These 
feathery harbingers of the wind would radiate from some spot 
on the horizon, and spread in fanlike fashion towards the 
zenith, changing with kaleidoscopic rapidity in some tempest 
of the upper air, whilst below all, as yet, was peace. One 
such cirrus formation was the most remarkable cloud effect I 
have seen anywhere in the world. The sky was cobalt at the 
time, and the low-lying midnight sun stained each fibrous 
wisp and plume vermilion, so that the heavens seemed aflame 
from a furnace on Cape Barne. It was a gorgeous spectacle, 
and provided one of the most beautiful photographs of the 
scenery at the gates of heaven that I secured from the door 
of our winter-quarters Hut. 

For a brief season, in the height of summer, the Antarctic 
is the most wonderful place on earth. When the temperature 
rose to anywhere near ' Freezing,' if the skies were clear and 
the wind at rest, one could sit on the rocks and bask in the 
sultry rays of the sun at any hour of the twenty-four. In 
such weather the door of our Hut was left open, to freshen 
the interior with the sweet pure air ; whilst the joyous squealing 
and raucous laughter of the skua-gulls never ceased about us. 

Hauling a sledge in such weather could not be done without 
shedding garment after garment as one progressed, and the 
snow sparkled underfoot with a myriad brilliants. When one 
donned the indispensable non-actinic goggles to guard against 
snow-blindness, the brilliants immediately became gems of 
every conceivable hue. But such welcome conditions did not 
last for long. Even a zephyr astir made all the difference; 
and, except for those few brief weeks at the end of the year, 
the sky more often than not was overcast, whilst the * mercury ' 
level exhibited a strong affinity for the bulb. 

Whilst this pleasurable season lasted, the stern countenance 
of Nature relaxed into smiles, and assumed such gentle aspects 
as seemed almost incredible after the frowns and passions that 




CIRRUS CLOUDS OVER THE BARNE GLACIER. 




THE AUTHOR PULLING HIS PHOTOGRAPHIC SLEDGE. 



194] 






HAPPY CAMERA DAYS 195 

had marred it for so long. Even our sterile peninsula simulated 
a comeliness of mien of which I had not suspected it capable 
— with the laughing skuas gambolling in its flashing lakelets, 
whilst the hills around were, as yet, shrouded with snow. 

Everywhere beautiful contrasts of light and shadow played; 
and as the earth revolved around the sun the noonday high- 
lights became the midnight shades, whilst the shadows of 
midnight were the highlights of noon. When the sun was in 
the east, the crenellated precipices of the glacier — inhabited by 
the echoes whose acquaintance I had made that evening in the 
winter night — threw long blue shelters from the glare. But 
when the sun passed round to the west, his glory was reflected 
by a thousand flashing mirrors in the gleaming walls. 

It was wonderful, too, to watch the changing aspects of the 
polished icebergs, as the sun meandered round the sky. The 
warm rays, beating on their crystal turrets and parapets and 
gables, melted every particle of snow, so that white ice only 
remained, tinged with the delicate hues of aquamarine and 
tourmaline; whilst every crack was turquoise and each deeper 
fissure azure. The sunlit side of every berg would be all 
a-dripping from the heat; but from each cornice in the shade 
a fringe of icy stalactites depended, and the walls and slopes 
glistened with the lustre of cut-glass. 

I spent many happy hours with my cameras amongst them 
— and the glaciers and islands and other lions of the vicinity. 
Cape Barne is the most remarkable feature of the region. 
It is a column of lava, 250 feet high, which solidified in the 
vent of some volcano that long ago disappeared, leaving this 
monolith as its cenotaph. One day, as we were returning from 
Cape Royds, I asked Nelson to stand near the foot of the 
column, to give scale to my photograph. But, as showers of 
fragments were occasionally falling from the tower — due to 
expansion of the mass by the heat of the summer sun, after 
its contraction in the winter — ^he exhibited a lack of joyfulness 
about accepting this invitation. However, as it was obvious 
that a figure was necessary to my picture, and as Nelson is 
a good fellow, he did as I bade him and 'made no bones.' 



196 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

The evil-eye of my camera was blind on this occasion, and I 
secured an excellent photograph, without mishap. 

When it had been found necessary to send further supplies 
to One Ton Camp, Day and Hooper of the Motor Party — 
who had returned safely from the Barrier with the news that 
all was well with the Southern Party — started out again five 
days later, accompanied by Clissold, he having now recovered 
from his accident. In the absence of our chef, those who knew 
anything about cooking now had an opportunity to distinguish 
(or extinguish) themselves. Simpson, at once, frankly admitted 
that if we were going to place any reliance in him, we should 
have to subsist on canned meats and * hard-tack,' as he had never 
so much as boiled an egg in his life. Fortunately, others 
had had a wider experience, and on the whole we did not fare 
so badly. In my California ranching days I had learned to 
cook from a man who was a real culinary artist. That was 
a long time ago, and I had seldom tried it since. I took my 
turn however, and soon got my hand in again. 

One day, about a month later, we espied the party, five miles 
away, returning over the frozen sea from Hut Point. As it 
would take them about threfe hours to reach home, and with 
the return of the cook there would be no longer any necessity 
for my, or any other's efforts for the table, I decided, with 
the help of Anton, to have one final fling, and to prepare a 
welcome surprise for the party — to show them that we had not 
been altogether helpless. Hastening back to the galley and 
its pots and pans, we broached the stores for a banquet. 

In due time the party arrived with true sledging appetites, 
thinking, as they afterwards admitted, they would have to 
dine on canned meat and biscuits. Instead, they found the 
ward-room table laid with a hot roast leg of mutton, an Irish 
stew, mashed potatoes and sprouts, hot custard with stewed 
pears, a large cold raspberry- jelly, pastry jam-tartlets and 
a 'three-decker' jam cake (two specialities of mine), bread, 
butter, jam, cheese, chocolates, and great jugs of hot cocoa. 

For a moment they stood aghast, with incredulous gaze 
riveted on the table; then they rubbed their eyes. Having 



-'^^^- - - - 




mamm 



fBiiiiiiillliililfiHllfil¥''n 



A MATCHLESS PANORAMA 197 

convinced themselves that they were awake, with a wild 
* who-oop ' they fell upon the feast — and never did food dis- 
appear with such extraordinary rapidity. 

Away to the west, whenever the weather was unusually clear, 
there unfolded to our gaze a panorama such as I doubt the 
world can show the parallel. Since that memorable day when 
first we saw the Western Mountains across McMurdo 
Sound, we had seen the peaks under every phase of light and 
shadow. We had seen them freshen to the morning ; basking 
at noonday, and dozing in the evening — in those sunny, summer 
days ; and we had watched them sleeping with wide open eyes 
under the mellow midnight sun. We had seen them lashed 
and tormented by the autumn tempests, until obliterated from 
view. We had seen them suffused with gory afterglows, 
and shrink like spectres into the Polar night. We had seen 
them ' bare their fangs unto the moon,' and had watched them 
wake from their long winter slumber, and blush to the kiss of 
the returning sun. 

' No words of mine can convey the impressiveness of the 
wonderful panorama displayed to our eyes,' wrote Captain 
Scott. 

For my part, I have felt the spell of the rugged beauty 
of the Alps, and the enchantment of the varying moods of 
the sacred Fujiyama. I have seen morning gild the mighty 
Everest; and evening stain the snows of Kangchengjunga. I 
have viewed the Spanish Sierras from the towers of the 
Alhambra ; and the Aiguilles of Haute Savoie from the summit 
of Mont Blanc. I have seen the rugged Rockies and the pine- 
clad Sierra Nevadas; the shapely Calif ornian Shasta, and the 
exquisite Javanese Merapi. And in similar latitudes at the 
other end of the earth I have seen the midnight sun shine on 
the crags and table mountains of Spitsbergen. 

Higher mountains I have seen — higher by far — ^but in all 
the world I know of none more serenely beautiful than those fifty 
miles of snowy heights in tempest-swept Victoria Land, as 
seen from Ross Island, across the frozen sea. 

Scott told me that a panoramic telephotograph of the range 



198 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

would be of lasting value to geography. I knew it would also 
be a remarkable feat of photography. I had soon realised the 
difficult nature of the task, however, for in those first sunny 
summer days the radiation from the sea had been so great that 
the quivering air rendered telephotography of distant objects 
impossible. One day in the autumn I had, however, succeeded 
in telephotographing the Queen of the range, Mt. Lister, over 
13,000 feet high and seventy miles away, during a brief lull in 
the wind. But, for the coveted panorama I had to wait until 
the weather became colder ; and when it did so, the few days on 
which the mountains appeared clearly were so windy that the 
feat was equally impracticable. 

An equivalent focus of nearly six feet would have to be 
used — six magnifications of an eleven-inch lens, which took 
the extreme limit of the extension of my camera. A six-times 
colour filter would be necessary in conjunction with an ortho- 
chromatic plate, and a medium diaphragm. Photographic 
enthusiasts will understand that to attempt to use such a 
combination on a windy day would be to court certain failure. 
Moreover, it was necessary that the picture should be taken 
from as great height as possible; for the tendency of tele- 
photography is to annihilate perspective, and from sea-level the 
intervening icebergs would appear to be close to the mountains, 
some of which were about ninety miles away. I should there- 
fore have to get above the highest of them. This increased 
the difficulty, for the wind was invariably stronger on high 
ground. I selected a position on the Erebus moraine, above 
the Ramp, where, in the lee of a debris-cone, there would 
be, to some extent, shelter from the prevailing wind, if any, 
and an uninterrupted prospect from an altitude of about 
250 feet. 

To accomplish the feat had become for the time being the 
principal aim of my existence, and I had kept a watchful eye 
on the weather, in the hope that, if but for one single hour, 
the elements might prove propitious. But, to my disappoint- 
ment, the winter had crept upon us without any chance having 
occurred to attain the object of my desire. When, after those 




TELEPHOTOGRAPH OF MOUNT LISTER (70 MILES DISTANT). 




THE AUTHOR AND HIS TELEPHOTO CAMERA. 



198J 



LONG-DISTANCE TELEPHOTOGRAPHY 199 

months of darkness, the welcome sun once more caressed the 
virgin peaks, the yearning to record the wonder was greater 
than ever ; but week after week passed by, and still no oppor- 
tunity occurred. On the rare occasions when the wind was 
at rest and the mountains visible, the radiation from the ice 
was now as bad as formerly it had been from the open water. 
It was impossible to focus. As it was now mid-summer again, 
I began to fear I might never get the coveted picture; for, 
once the ice broke up, the character of the scene would be 
completely changed. A frozen sea was essential. 

But early in January there came a day when the visibility 
was perfect, and only a light breeze, sufficient to eliminate 
all radiation, was blowing. I decided that the chance of a 
lifetime had come ; so ' packing ' my things up to the Ramp, 
I set the camera on a heavy, rigid tripod in the shelter of my 
debris cone. All the peaks stood out distinctly in the mar- 
vellously clear air; but the sea edge of the glaciers — ^at the 
base of the foothills, 40 miles across the Sound — was invisible, 
as it was below the horizon. 

After carefully checking some calculations, I exposed a 
double series of 7 X 5 plates on the panorama, telephoto- 
graphing the entire range from end to end; and I had the 
satisfaction of developing, an hour later, twelve belautiful 
negatives of one of the longest-distance panoramic telephoto- 
graphs ever secured. 



CHAPTER XVIII 
CONCERNING SEALS 

Captain Scott,, when at the point of death, in his last message to 
his wife, wrote: 'Make the boy interested in natural history if you 
can ; it is better than games ; they encourage it at some schools.' 

Vide * Scott's L-ast Expedition.' 

Cape Evans was not an ideal location for the study of Antarctic 
zoology. There was a lack of variety of fauna, though 
of the few families that occur individuals were numerous 
enough. 

Unlike its antipodes, on the Antarctic continent there are 
no Polar bears ; neither are there wolves, foxes, nor any other 
fur-bearing creatures. In the Far South no land animals 
exist. The only living creatures are such as find subsistence 
in the sea, and sea-birds. 

Though innumerable sea mammals frequent the islands some 
1,500 miles further north, only three species visited us during 
our stay at Cape Evans. Of two of these three species we 
saw only a single specimen; they were a Sea-leopard, and a 
Crab-eater seal. I have already mentioned that we first saw 
Crab-eaters in the pack-ice. 

The only Sea-leopard that had the misfortune to visit us, 
came during the winter. One moonlight day in May — ^which 
is one of the three months of darkness — I was out with Day, 
near a place known to us as the Big Crack, when I came upon 
a seal which I proceeded to stir up for fun. To my surprise 
I saw that what, in the darkness, I had taken for a complacent 
Weddell seal, was really a very different kind of beast — slim 
and clean-cut of form, with a well-defined neck, a long head, 
and an array of teeth that it showed in a most aggressive 
manner, as it first snarled, and then went for me. Day, who 

200 



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■^- ■■ ' ~irn iiiiiiir ■"■"— ■iii-'-^'^-^ ll ll i i lllil iH M IIIMliMMilMMilMiM 



A FEROCIOUS SEAL 201 

recognised it from his previous experience of seals on the 
Shackleton Expedition, shouted to me: 'Look out! It's a 
Sea-leopard ! It'll bite your leg off ! ' 

I did * look out ' ; and put up the smartest bid of dodging and 
sprinting that I did the whole time I was in the South, with 
the beast wriggling and flapping after me, close at my heels. 
Day, who is longer of leg than I, ran up and diverted its 
attention, and then we lured it well towards the Hut, half a 
mile away, where we left it — as blown as ourselves — and 
called Uncle Bill, who came out with his club and dirk, and 
despatched it, for his collection. It was a young animal, 
about nine feet long: a full grown adult bull would be more 
than double the length. 

The Sea-leopard, though a true seal, is an ocean carnivore 
that lives on warm-blooded creatures such as penguins ; it also 
preys on the fish-eating seals. Sir Douglas Mawson relates 
how, during the Australian Antarctic Expedition, he saw one 
chasing a Crab-eater seal. It has a wicked-looking array of 
teeth — as terrible as a tiger's — and no doubt it would mangle 
a man badly should one be so unfortunate as to fall at its 
mercy. From the amazing speed at which this nine-foot 
specimen wriggled along, we realised in what an unpleasant 
dilemma one might find oneself if a twelve-footer were stirred 
up in mistake for a Weddell. 

Of Weddell seals we saw any number ; they were always with 
us during our stay in the South. Numerous specimens were 
eight, nine or ten feet long; and some of the big bulls that I 
observed on the floes — ^but could not get near to — must have 
been quite four yards from the tip of the snout to the end of 
the tail flippers. Weddell seals are fish-eating mammals — 
inoffensive creatures so far as man is concerned; but a big 
bull is a formidable looking beast as he lies slumbering in the 
lee of an iceberg — ^three-and-a-half yards of pulsating flesh, 
with appropriate girth. 

They have beautiful coats, which vary so much in their 
markings that sometimes it seemed hardly possible that 
neighbours basking on the ice could be of the same species. 



■HBiiaBi 



202 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

Most commonly, the upper part of the coat is a rich chocolate- 
brown, graduating to a lighter brown, or fawn, and streaked 
and spotted with white or dark brown under the belly. Other 
specimens are mottled all over, whilst others again have rich 
black markings, and some are streaked with grey and silver. 
The finest coats exhibit all these shades, from black to silver, 
and are exceedingly handsome. But they are not fur; the 
skin is covered with short hair, which, however beautiful in 
life, is little sought after by the furrier. If Weddell 
seals were fur-bearing creatures, their handsome coats would 
speedily prove a curse to them, and render them liable to the 
danger of extermination. 

The Weddell seal in its native element is an agile, graceful 
creature; but it is a most ungainly animal when out of water. 
Unlike the Sea-leopard, which can travel so rapidly on the 
ice, or the Crab-eater, which wriggles along at a fairly quick 
pace too, the Weddell undulates its great bulk laboriously 
forward in a caterpillar-like manner, alternately humping up 
its back and straightening out — ^propelling itself thus with the 
assistance of its paddles and tail flippers. 

In the Antarctic, seals seem to be quite devoid of fear when 
on the ice. This is because they have no enemies when out 
of the sea. When in it, they must ever be on the watch for 
their mortal enemy, the Killer whale. When the weather was 
fair and there was no wind, the great, fat creatures would 
bask and sleep in the sunshine for days together in the summer- 
time. Often they seemed to be dreaming, for they would 
start in their sleep, and snort and gnash their teeth, whilst a 
quiver ran all over their sleek, floppy forms. Their dreams 
always seemed to be of a pleasant nature, perhaps reminiscent 
of catching some fat fish that lurked amongst the rocks; I 
never saw them exhibit any symptoms indicative that their 
encounters with the Killer whales were troubling them. 

We used to get much fun out of teasing fat old Weddell 
bulls, whose blubber was so thick that prodding them with a 
stick at first failed to wake them. When at last they did 
awake, their astonishment was most comical ; they would stare 



"""• —"•"'■ 



., 



d 




LOOKING FURTIVELY BACKWARDS. 








A SEAL AT A BREATHING HOLE. 



[2C3 



SEAL CHARACTERISTICS 203 

and blink at us, as though trying to make sure that they really 
were awake, and not having some horrible nightmare. Our 
vertical habits seemed to puzzle them greatly. Their range 
of vision is very limited when they are out of water ; how far 
they can see when in it is, of course, unknown. Judging 
from their demeanour, we seemed to loom suddenly upon them 
when we drew near. Becoming aware of our presence, they 
would stare at us in blank amazement with their great soft 
eyes, and roll over and regard us sideways, first on one side 
and then on the other; then they would lie on their backs and 
scrutinise us upside-down, in the vain endeavour to see us 
horizontally and make us into seals. Finally, presumably 
coming to the conclusion that we must be merely well-developed 
penguins, if left alone they would resume their interrupted 
slumbers and bother no more about us. 

If we approached near and provoked them, they would 
chatter their teeth rapidly, and, opening their mouths wide, 
they would snort and bellow in a blustering sort of way, in 
the effort to frighten us. As this invariably failed to have 
the desired effect, and we stood our ground, they would then 
exhibit real symptoms of fear, and remove themselves out of 
the way as quickly as their ponderous bulk permitted, looking 
at us, with head upraised, furtively along the backbone as 
they did so. A few yards seemed to eliminate us from their 
vision, and having thus shaken off the nightmare, they would 
roll over and snooze again. 

Though, as a natural protection against the cold, they have 
a substantial lining of blubber, or fat — two to three inches 
thick — between the hide and the flesh, they do not like zero 
temperatures. If a keen wind arose, and they were unable to 
find any shelter from it, they speedily retired into the sea for 
warmth. Even in the coldest months of the year the water 
was always of a uniform temperature of three degrees below 
the freezing-point, though the air temperature might be eighty 
degrees lower. During the winter, though they kept their 
blow-holes open, they only came on to the ice to sleep 
when the weather was calm. We found that holes, which we 



m 



204 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

made in the ice for fishing purposes, froze eighteen inches or 
more in twenty- four hours; so the seals must have to be 
continually on the alert to keep alive. For the three winter 
months — from the middle of May till mid-August — ^there is, 
save for the periods of moonlight, darkness day and night. 
They must, therefore, have some instinct that amounts to a 
separate sense, other than sight, to guide them to the blow- 
holes on which their lives depend ; and in low zero temperatures 
they must find it necessary to visit these holes frequently to keep 
them from freezing solid. Sometimes a seal would arrive at 
a hole in such distress that the vehemence of the first expiration 
of its too-long pent-up breath was almost like the blowing of 
a whale; and the rapid breathing that followed showed plainly 
that it had remained submerged almost to the point of exhaus- 
tion. I do not think it unlikely that some are drowned under 
such circumstances. Several times I saw dead seals in the 
sea when the ice was breaking up in the spring, and thought 
it not unlikely that they had met their end by drowning, for 
they exhibited no injuries. 

It was a weird experience to stand beside one of their blow- 
holes on a calm, moonlight winter night. The thin film of 
ice over the water indicated that the breathing-place was in 
frequent use. Suddenly, a tremor would ripple through the 
film ; then a seal's head would break it and shoot out of the hole, 
all glistening in the moonlight, and, loudly snorting, its owner 
would draw in long draughts of the keen, biting air. I have 
often stood ten or fifteen minutes beside a hole, waiting for 
a seal's appearance; and have even felt its hot, fishy breath 
in my face, as, furiously panting, it gazed at me with its 
great soft eyes in blank amazement, obviously wondering what 
manner of creature I might be. 

Once, in the winter, when the keen air seemed almost 
effervescing with the intensity of the cold, and my breath 
solidified the moment that it left mouth and nostrils, and 
rapidly accumulated into a mass of frost-rime about my warm 
fur-helmet, I proceeded to a favourite hole and waited. Before 
I had been there five minutes, a seal emerged, its beautiful head 



THROUGH AN ICE WINDOW 205 

all blazing with phosphorescence; and, as the water trickled 
down its neck, for a few moments it seemed to be covered with 
little streaks of flame, whilst a ghostly glimmer shone in the 
hole. After half-a-dozen healthy blows, it shut its dilated 
nostrils, almost with a snap, ducked quickly below the surface, 
and disappeared — perhaps feeling somewhat uneasy in mind at 
seeing me there. 

As the weather grew colder still, the seals would scarcely 
show their heads at all; they merely poked their nostrils an 
inch or two above water, and filled their lungs with a fresh 
supply of air. 

When the sun came back again, these breathing-places were 
fine observation holes through which to watch what went on 
in the depths below. At one place there was such a hole, with 
a much larger one near by, through which, when the sun shone 
brightly, a great ray of light penetrated deep down into the 
sea. One day I was lying prone at the smaller hole, watching 
the passing marine life revealed by this light from the larger 
one, when a big bull seal made for my peep-hole, with the 
intention of shooting out on to the ice. He appeared so 
suddenly, and with such a burst of speed, that I only saw 
him coming just in time to avoid being bowled over. Even 
so, I got a punch on the nose from his muzzle; his prickly 
whiskers brushed my cheek, and I received the full blast of 
his fishy breath in the face. As I sat back, rubbing my nose 
ruefully, the seal treaded water, regarding me for a full half- 
minute in bewilderment, obviously undecided whether I was 
friend or foe ; then, deciding to take no chances, he abandoned 
his idea of emerging, and subsided whence he came. 

Once — through one of these windows in the ice, where the 
water below was about three fathoms deep — I watched a seal 
catching fish. The bed of McMurdo Sound swarms with a 
genus, to which I have before referred, somewhat resembling 
a small rock-cod, called Notothenia. They have large heads, 
with bodies that taper off rapidly to the tail, and large wing- 
like fins. These fish lurk amongst the rocks, sometimes lying 
for many minutes motionless — as gudgeon lie on the pebbles 



206 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

of a river-bed. One day when I was watching them, a seal 
came ghding along within a yard of the ocean floor, pros- 
pecting for its dinner. Its curious tail-flippers, undulating 
almost imperceptibly, were the only method of propulsion; but 
they sent it along swiftly and phantom-like, without any 
commotion to disturb its prey. I saw it pick up several fish, 
which made no effort to escape; they seemed to be terrorised 
into a fear that paralysed them, rendering escape impossible. 
Fixing its victim with its great eyes — which must look goblin- 
like when under water — the silent apparition simply glided 
up and sucked them in. 

It is of course well known that certain mammals, reptiles 
and fishes possess the power of fascination, or mesmerism, to 
a remarkable degree — some even depending upon it as a means 
of procuring their food. I have personally observed several 
interesting instances. Once, in my California ranching days, 
I came upon a large lizard transfixed, as though carved by 
some clever Japanese sculptor in bronze. On looking in the 
direction of its intent gaze, I saw a rattle-snake, a yard long, 
slowly — ^almost imperceptibly — gliding towards the lizard, with 
fire blazing in its eyes. So absorbed was the snake with its 
mesmerising, and so completely was the lizard under its spell, 
that neither seemed to be aware of my presence, though I 
stood watching within ten feet of the pair of them. There 
was almost human terror in the eyes of the lizard, as, riveted 
to the spot by the awful spell of the fiery eyeballs, it stood as 
though turned to stone, whilst the flickering forked tongue 
drew every moment nearer. When within a yard of its victim, 
the snake drew itself up to strike. The moment it did so, my 
gun — along the barrel-rib of which I had watched the drama 
— ^spoke, and as the ' rattler ' writhed out its last spasmodic 
moments, the terrified lizard, none the worse for its adventure, 
was scuttling half-a-mile away — judging by the way it 
scampered oflf the moment the spell was broken. 

When I saw a seal catching fish in McMurdo Sound, I came 
to the conclusion that these notothenia — ^which can move with 
lightning-like rapidity when they like, and probably could 



r 




A SEAL 'SAWING' THE ICE. 




STRUGGLING OUT WITH ITS SIDE FLIPPERS. 



[207 



VALUABLE KINEMATOGRAPH RECORDS 207 

easily avoid the seal's capacious maw — fall an easy prey, 
because they become paralysed with fear and are powerless 
to escape. 

When the sea ice became ten feet thick or more — so that 
there was a good bank of it above water — the seals found it a 
difficult matter to get out to sleep. If at the first rush they 
could project themselves far enough out of water to get their 
side-flippers on to the ice, they could usually work themselves 
out, after much floundering about. But if these efforts failed, 
they would proceed to overcome the obstacle by cutting away 
the ice with their teeth, using both upper and lower incisors 
and canines in the process. They do not bite the ice, but, 
opening their jaws wide and using the shoulders as a pivot, 
they swing their heads from side to side, and saw^ or scrape 
the ice away. Thus, they scoop out an inclined trough, equal 
to their own width, up which, with a tremendous expenditure 
of effort, they laboriously drag themselves. 

The value of the kinematograph in faithfully recording such 
animal habits was never better exemplified, during our Expedi- 
tion, than in this case. Moving-picture films of this remarkable 
habit — ^which has been witnessed by only a few observers — 
were secured, conclusively proving that the process is as 
described above, and not, as Dr. Wilson thought, and described 
in * The Voyage of the Discovery/ by fixing the teeth of the 
lower jaw and revolving the upper jaw upon it. I watched 
many seals thus engaged, and the cutting away of the ice 
was invariably accomplished by swinging the head from side 
to side, as shown in the films. 

They sometimes continued sawing long after any further 
cutting was necessary. Once, I saw a large female Weddell 
seal scraping at the flat surface of the ice when she was already 
well out of water; and on another occasion, I witnessed one 
sawing away assiduously just below water — for what object 
I could not imagine. Kinematograph films were secured of 
both these instances of unnecessary waste of effort. From 
my observations, I was led to believe that Weddell seals do 
not utilise all this energy solely for a useful purpose. I think 



208 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

some of them like doing it, and this conviction became the 
more certain when one day I saw a baby seal, not much over 
a month old, copying its mother, and sawing away with its 
little ivory pegs like anything — and seemingly enjoying it. 

The young Weddell seals arc born about the end of October, 
or early in November; but I was unable to get to the calving 
grounds at Razorback Island as early as I would have liked. 
When, towards the end of October, I started off with cameras 
and kinematograph, a blizzard threatened when I had proceeded 
about half way, and I had to return home. Then, owing to 
the start of the Southern Party on November 1st, and, later, 
more bad weather, I was unable to begin the work of illus- 
trating this interesting chapter in the life of the seals until ten 
days later, by which time practically all the calves were born. 

On the second day after my return to Cape Evans from 
the Barrier, I went with Anton to the Razorback seal rookery. 
As we neared the lee of the land, the sounds reminded me of 
a sheep meadow in the lambing season; for the calves bleat 
very much like lambs, and the call of the mothers is half 
way between the baaing of a ewe and the lowing of a heifer. 
When we arrived, only a few belated mothers were yet to be 
delivered ; but there were several calves a few hours old. 

In the Arctic regions baby seals are white as the snow on 
which they lie — a provision of Nature to hide them from the 
searching eyes of Polar bears, until they are old enough to 
take care of themselves. But in the Antarctic there is no 
need for such protective coloration, for there are no Polar 
bears or other land creatures of any kind to prey upon them. 
The southern seals are pigmented by Nature for protection when 
in the water, not when safe on ice or land. 

I do not think there can be a prettier creature than a baby 
seal. The little Weddells were about a yard long, and they 
had thick, soft, woolly coats of down, sometimes cream coloured 
all over, but more usually fawn, graduating to black at the tail 
flippers. They were very lively little creatures, with lovely 
dark eyes, full of wonder; and they looked infinitely more 
intelligent than their parents. 



/ 




MOTHER AND BABY. 



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WEDDELL SEAL SUCKLING CALF. 




WEDDELL SEAL SUCKLING CALF. 



208] 



ANIMAL AFFECTION 209 

The mothers were lying about asleep on the ice, suckling their 
'little ones, just as sows lie with a litter — for seals suckle their 
young like other mammals. Some of the mothers had twins, 
but this was unusual. If we approached too near, the mother 
would bellow at us in the endeavour to frighten us away; and 
occasionally one would ' lope ' towards us in a threatening 
manner, not always bluffing either — sometimes we had to slip 
quickly aside to avoid her charge. The babies stared at us in 
open-eyed wonder. They would open their pretty, pink little 
mouths, if we teased them ; and they had a queer way of bending 
the extremities towards us until head and tail almost met, and 
then suddenly roll over and flip them round to the other side. 
And sometimes they would lie on their backs, with tail 
towards us, and, with head uplifted, regard us along their 
' tummies.' 

When they were a week or so old, they loved to play pranks 
on their snoozing mothers; they would nose and romp about 
them, and bite them playfully — the mother sometimes waking 
up and joining in the game. When Mama went off hunting, 
she most certainly instructed her offspring, in some manner 
that it understood, not to move from the spot until she returned. 
Then she undulated off to her blow-hole and disappeared for 
an hour or so; meanwhile the baby curled itself up and lay 
open-eyed, but never budging from the spot. When the mother 
returned, she made a bee-line for her offspring, and fondled 
it with obvious affection. 

There is nothing more beautiful on earth than the love of 
a mother for her child. And so with animals, too. One has only 
to observe a cow with her calf; a doe with her fawn; a 
tigress with her cub — to realise that it is something more 
than instinct which forms that inseparable tie between them. 
Animals love their young relatively as humans do, and are 
often ready to lay down life itself in their defence. Seals are 
no less devoted than the queens of the forest in this respect. 
To watch the mother seals playing with their little ones, was 
to realise that amidst the relentless struggle for existence that 
ever wages in those Antarctic waters, love — unselfish, self- 
14 



210 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

sacrificing, mother love — warms the hearts of the creatures 
that find existence there. 

Once I watched a mother seal with twin babies for an hour 
or more, and could have spent hours more observing them, if 
time had permitted. Sometimes the two little animated rolls 
of down would snuggle side by side and suckle together, while 
the mother dozed. Then the little imps played pranks upon 
her, brushing and tickling her face with their flippers, and 
nipping at her head and neck, as they frisked and teased around 
her. She dozed with one eye half-open — ^always keeping a 
watchful glance upon her offspring — and now and again she 
would lift her head to regard them, and to give a deep bay, 
which I could only interpret as an expression of unalloyed 
contentment with her happy lot. Occasionally she would 
caress her babies, sniffing at and nibbling them, and running 
her teeth all up and down their little fluffy forms. She never 
licked them as a cow licks her calf, for seals are short-tongued 
creatures, and that is foreign to their nature. 

Tlhe habit of sniffing their young prompted me to make an 
experiment, to ascertain if they really did possess the sense 
of scent. One day, after a mother had left her baby, I teased 
the little one until I had got it by a circuitous route far away 
from where she had left it. In due course she returned; but, 
as the cub was not where she had exhorted it to remain, she 
exhibited great agitation, bellowing loudly, and rushing about 
excitedly. Not finding it, she hastened to several neighbouring 
mothers, frantically sniffing their cubs, but quickly rejecting 
them. She was received with hostility by the other cows, and 
there might have been bloodshed if she had not hurried away 
on her search. Still failing to find her little one, she returned 
to the spot where she had left it, and carefully smelt about 
until she had found the trail; then she went off on the scent, 
with her nose to the ice, until she had covered the whole of the 
course that her cub had taken. When at last she found her 
baby, her joy, and her affection for it were obvious. She 
seemed positively to purr with pleasure as, after caressing and 
sniffing the little one, she lay and suckled it. 



-■«^a^aaww^firwr 




MOTHER, AND CALF A FEW DAYS OLD. 



210] 



/ 



MOTHER AND BABY 211 

By the time they are a month old the young seals have shed 
all their down; and in their beautiful new coats of silver-grey 
and black — sleek and glossy and suitable for rapid progress 
under water — they are ready for their first dip. I had only 
one case of this baptism under observation; but it was one of 
my most fascinating glimpses of the Nature life of the Antarctic 
when the baby seal lay bleating on the brink, whilst Mama in 
the water exhorted it in vain to take the plunge. The baby 
craned its neck over the edge, and, with dilated nostrils and 
great eyes full of fear, gazed into the pool, emitting plaintive 
bleats as its courage over and over again failed at the last 
moment. For a long time the mother coaxed and cajoled 
unavailingly, as she splashed and dipped and snorted to show 
how enjoyable it was; then she would disappear for a few 
minutes, leaving the cub gazing into the deep, that looked so 
terrifying by contrast with the brilliant sunlit ice. At last, 
however, the little fellow did make up his mind — whilst his 
mother was under the ice, too. Slowly and very cautiously 
he allowed himself to overbalance, and, closing his nostrils 
with a snap, slid head-first into the water and under the ice, 
no doubt to find Mama waiting there to act as guide. I stayed 
some time, but as they did not reappear I concluded that the 
little chap was finding the wonderful experience more pleasant 
than he expected, or that Mama had conducted him to some 
other, and easier, exit hole. 

The mothers continue to suckle their cubs for some weeks 
after they have taken to the water; how long I cannot say, as 
we lacked opportunity to observe them continuously. The 
Razorback breeding-ground was too far away to visit except 
when the weather was fair, and we had a good deal of bad 
weather about that time. I saw many youngsters still suckling 
that were evidently well broken to the water. But as the ice, 
in some seasons, probably breaks up as far south as the island 
in December, I have no doubt that, in order to meet such a 
contingency, the young ones are all weaned long before the end 
of the year — or about a month, or less, after entering the sea. 

Though Weddell seals are not gregarious creatures in the 



212 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

same sense that penguins are, yet their herding nature is 
indicated in the habit of frequenting certain favoured spots for 
bringing forth their young. Neighbouring females would lie 
in close proximity, together with their cubs, apparently 
oblivious of each other's presence. Once, however, I saw two 
females have a sparring match. Each seemingly suspected the 
other of designs upon her own offspring, as, in rolling over, 
they approached one another. With much bellowing they 
reared and squared up, and with open mouths made passes 
for each other's throats; but the defence on each side was as 
good as the offensive, and the bout soon ended without blood- 
shed. I never saw a fight between two large bulls, but Dr. 
Wilson, during the Discovery Expedition, witnessed several 
desperate encounters for the possession of the females. Lieut. 
Campbell, of our Northern Party, also reported a fierce fight 
between two big bulls, in which they gashed each other through 
hide and blubber until they were bleeding badly. We seldom 
killed a bull seal that had not deep scars on its hide, and it 
was easy to distinguish those sustained in combat with their 
own kind ; they were quite distinct from the terrible cicatrices, 
sometimes a yard or more in length, of wounds received in 
their adventures with the Killer whales. 

If there is one thing seals love more than anything else, 
it is to lie at the edge of the shore and let the incoming 
waves roll them over. It seems to give them infinite pleasure. 
I have even seen a seal allowing itself to be rolled about by 
the waves amongst the rocks — ^and kenyte rocks are not the 
most pleasant for such a purpose, for they are jagged with 
points and spurs and covered with rasp-like crystals. Their 
bellies are sometimes lacerated in crawling over these rocks; 
and often, when they essay ashore in such a spot, their flippers 
leave a trail of blood behind. 

Once, we saw a seal get itself into an extraordinary predica- 
ment through a bad error of judgment, which, though ludicrous 
to us onlookers, must have been anything but pleasant for the 
seal. In the ice- foot, which extended some ten yards from the 
land, there was a hole; but the ice was four feet thick and 




WEDDELL SEALS FIGHTING- 




AN EASY EXIT HOLE. 



112] 



AN UNEXPECTED ATTACK 218 

the bottom of it rested on the rocks. The seal, making for 
the water, plunged headlong into the hole, to which there was 
no exit below. Finding itself unable to get further in, it was 
also unable to get out again. For some minutes its nether portion 
squirmed about in a frantic manner, until, finally, the unhappy- 
creature managed to wriggle its head back as well; and there 
for half an hour it lay, doubled up in the hole — ^with both 
head and tail protruding — ^before it succeeded with a supreme 
effort in freeing itself. 

The vocal propensities of a bull Weddell seal are remarkable. 
Dr. Wilson, in * The Voyage of the Discovery' gave the 
following description of the performance: 

' It was a constant source of amusement to us to stir up 
an old bull Weddell seal and make him sing; he would begin 
sometimes with a long musical moan at a high pitch, which 
gradually got louder and sounded like ice-moans that are 
common on an extensive sheet of ice. This was followed by 
a series of grunts and gurgles, and a string of plaintive piping 
notes which ended up exactly on the call note of a bullfinch.' 

Though Weddell seals are harmless creatures, seldom 
showing fight except in defence of their young, yet I discovered 
more than once that it was as well to treat them with respect. 
A ten- foot bull is eight feet or more in girth, and would weigh 
from 900 to 1,000 lbs. One day, I came across one of these 
big fellows among the ice-blocks at West Beach — ^a sandy 
stretch of shore at the end of our cape, much frequented by 
seals as a convenient sheltered spot for a snooze. I tried to 
persuade him, by poking him with a stick, to rear up his 
head into a favourable position for a portrait. Having worked 
him into a fine pose — with head and shoulders well arched back, 
staring at me open-mouthed, and flippers extended — I was 
focussing him on the ground-glass, with my eyes in the hood 
of my reflex camera, when, just as I was about to release the 
shutter, he suddenly evinced the most determined objections to 
the proceedings. Lunging forward open-mouthed, with a loud 
bellow, he seized me by the shin and sent me flying backwards. 



214 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

With several hundredweight behind it, the blow might well have 
broken my leg ; but fortunately I was caught off my balance, and 
the fall saved me. Having sent me sprawling, he retreated^ 
apparently as scared as I was — regarding me suspiciously along 
his backbone. I limped slowly back to the Hut in a good 
deal of pain, and could feel the warm blood trickling down my 
leg, until my foot seemed to slip about in my boot each time 
I stepped. On arriving at the Hut, I unfastened my clothing 
as quickly as possible, fully prepared to find my leg in a horrible 
state; but to my surprise there was hardly any hemorrhage. 
There were four teeth cuts on my shin, a red bruise, and a 
mere spot of blood; that was all. My thick clothing had no 
doubt saved me from worse injury. It was a curious instance 
of the power of imagination, for I had felt convinced the 
wound was bleeding freely. These seals have clean, healthy 
mouths, and no trouble ensued from the bite; I dressed it 
antiseptically and it healed up rapidly. After this adventure 
I treated these big Weddell seals with more deference than 
hitherto; it was obvious that one of them enraged might easily 
break a man's leg with its jaws; they could also do so with a 
rapid blow of the heavy tail flippers, which are no mean 
weapons either. In this case I had certainly invited, and, no 
doubt, from the seal's point of view, deserved the punish- 
ment I received. 

On another occasion, when I was kinematographing a large 
Weddell seal amongst the rocks, some sudden impulse urged 
it to go for me. The unusual manoeuvre was so unexpected, 
and the seal charged at such a rate that I had to pick 
up the camera and dodge aside ; even so the 900 lb. beast very 
nearly knocked both me and my apparatus over. 

One day when the Terra Nova was moored to the ice, oflf 
Hut Point, I witnessed — and had the good fortune to kine- 
matograph a great part of — a. stirring drama of Polar animal 
life. A school of Killer whales appeared, cruising along by the 
ice-foot, on the look-out for seals. There were about a dozen, 
and some of them must have been huge fellows, judging from 
the height of their dorsal fins, which projected five or six feet 




d 



A THRILLING DRAMA 215 

above the water. The sinister shapes rose and sank, and rose 
again, as the evil creatures moved along — a small forest of 
spouts preceding each appearance of the fins. Suddenly, a big 
cow Weddell seal shot out of the water ahead of the whales, 
and landed with a resounding smack on the ice. Instead of 
shuffling off to safety, the terrified animal immediately turned 
round and, bellowing loudly, hung over the ice edge, peering 
into the water. I wondered what such madness meant; but 
in a moment a baby seal appeared, and made frantic efforts 
to struggle out to join its mother. Frenzied with fear for 
the life of her little one, the mother rushed back and forth 
distractedly, as she saw the heaving fins drawing momentarily 
nearer ; whilst the baby, piteously bleating, with its little paddles 
on the ice-edge, struggled in vain to get its body out of water. 
When the ill-omened rising, sinking, fins were within a dozen 
yards, the mother rushed and leapt into the water, almost on 
to the very top of them. I thought she had sprung to certain 
death; but, with one accord the rhythmical fins now moved 
outward from the ice, and then I knew that this was but a 
ruse on the part of the mother to lure the dreadful creatures 
from her baby. A minute later the cluster of fins turned again 
towards the ice, and almost simultaneously the mother re- 
appeared and leapt out of the water again — twenty yards in 
front of them — close to the bleating, struggling baby. 
Bellowing loudly, she pushed her nose right into the little 
one's face, as though in a last despairing caress; then she 
seemed to try to pull it out of danger with her teeth. Again 
the devilish fins approached, and once again the mother sprang 
into the very jaws of death — risking her own life without a 
moment's hesitation to act as a decoy to save her little one. 
Again the stratagem succeeded, and the fins turned away once 
more ; meanwhile the bleating baby vainly kept on straining to 
get out. The mother now appeared again, not, however, this 
time to leap on to the ice, but to try and heave the baby out 
upon her back. The dorsal fins had turned about again, and 
I held my breath for the tensity of my nerves, as the devoted 
mother lifted the baby clear out of the water, and had it 



216 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

within a single inch of safety, when the poor little chap, clawing 
madly with its flippers, rolled off her shoulders into the sea, 
and both mother and baby disappeared — not five yards ahead 
of the nearest of the Orcas, as they rose to sound and then 
followed their quarry under the ice-sheet. 

I waited to see if they would reappear, but I saw neither 
seals nor whales again. I could only conjecture the tragedy 
that perhaps was being enacted below the ice on which the sun 
was shining so serenely — ^whilst fervently hoping that the 
devoted mother had devised some expedient to save her little 
one, without sacrificing herself. It was the most beautiful 
example I have ever known of devotion of an animal 
mother for her offspring, proving, as it did, that the love of 
some wild creatures for their young is not inferior to that 
of human beings. 

This incident has a sequel that is perhaps worth telling. 
On my return from the Antarctic to Australia, I was pressed 
by a reporter of one of the leading Sydney daily papers to 
give a story for publication about the animal life of the South. 
I agreed, conditionally that the story should be printed word 
for word as I told it, without addition or alteration, and that 
a proof should be submitted to me for correction before it 
appeared. This, the reporter promised, and I related the above 
incident just as I have told it here. I did not receive the 
promised proof, however ; and the next day an amazing article 
appeared in the columns of ' The Sydney Morning Herald.' 
If / did not witness the end of the drama, that Sydney reporter 
did, and — as a finale to his, not my, garbled account of the most 
unheard-of habits of seals and penguins — ^he finished the Story 
of the seal and the whales with the assertion, with which he 
credited me : ' This went on time and time again till the Killers 
finally reached her, their jaws snapping and tearing at her 
sides, till the sea was red with blood ! ' 



liMi 



CHAPTER XIX 

THE BUCCANEERS OF THE SOUTH 

We saw comparatively little of folar Dird life at Cape Evans. 
There were only the amphibious penguins and skua-gulls. 
McCormick's Antarctic skua-gull — which was named after Mr. 
McCormick, the naturalist of Sir James Ross's 1840 Expedi- 
tion — was, so far as one could discover, the 'only flying-bird 
that breeds on Ross Island; it was certainly the only bird 
that bred at Cape Evans whilst we were there. A few Giant 
petrels visited our promontory occasionally, but though several 
were shot, nothing was learned of their nesting habits, for they 
breed many hundreds of miles further north. When in the air 
they were an imposing sight, for they have a spread of wing 
some six feet or more from tip to tip ; but aground they were 
ug'ly, ungainly, disgusting creatures — ^with big beaks — ^that 
would gorge to repletion on the refuse of a freshly-killed seal, 
and then squat on the floes and doze for hours. They were 
very timid, and on the approach of anyone, first they vomited 
the contents of their stomachs to relieve themselves of the 
weight, and then ran with outstretched wings for twenty or 
thirty yards ere they could gather sufficient way to enable them 
to leave the ice — similarly as an aeroplane * taxies ' over the 
ground before developing sufficient speed to rise into the air. 

But the skua-gulls were with us for six months of the year, 
and nested within a hundred yards of our Hut. We did 
not find them altogether pleasant neighbours, for they were 
extremely noisy and of a most quarrelsome disposition; 
throughout the summer their raucous screaming never ceased, 
day or night, around us. They are great scavengers, and the 
spilling of blood always attracted them in numbers. We first 
became intimately acquainted with them when the ship moored 

217 



218 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

alongside the icefoot at Cape Evans, to discharge her cargo. 
Immediately they evinced a lively interest in the scraps thrown 
overboard from the galley, and soon exhibited their carnivorous 
propensities. No sooner had the first penguin been killed by 
the dogs than skuas flocked to the scene of the tragedy, and 
were quickly picking at the victim's remains. 

These birds are greedy and selfish to the point of folly. 
After the cook had taken the titbits from a slaughtered seal, 
a dozen or so skuas would instantly gather about the carcase, 
and quarrel so furiously over the remains that sometimes the 
flesh froze as they fought, and finally they would have to 
abandon what, but for their avidity, would have been sufficient 
to provide a feast for a hundred — as even their sharp beaks 
could no longer make any impression on the meat. We found 
that a good deal of work could be saved in the flensing of seal- 
skins by simply laying the pelts on the ice, hair-side downwards ; 
the skuas rapidly cleaned them of every particle of blubber. 

Though numbers of these rapacious birds frequented our 
vicinity, we soon found that they had no kindred feeling 
whatever for each other. Each individual regarded its 
neighbours as its mortal enemies, as indeed they were, for 
skuas — whose normal food consists of offal, small fish, 
Crustacea and anything else they can find in the sea — prey also 
on the eggs and chicks of penguins, and on each other's eggs 
and young. But, curiously enough, though a skua will at 
once pounce down upon, carry off, and devour a neighbour's 
eggs or chicks, if left unguarded, yet I have never seen one 
touch a dead adult of its own species. Many gulls were shot 
around our Hut ; but their bodies lay unmolested by their kind 
— this respect for the dead being one of the few pleasant 
characteristics of a fowl which I describe for lack of more 
agreeable creatures to write about. 

The skua-gull's only other virtues are its personal appearance 
and its love of cleanliness. It has a passion for fresh water, and 
whilst the snow lakes were open on our cape, scores would 
congregate in the largest of these to gambol and cleanse them- 
selves in the waters for hours on end, squawking their harsh 



Y 



APPEARANCES DECEPTIVE 219 

cries, meanwhile, in delight. I never saw them venture under 
the cascade during the few days that it rippled down the rocks ; 
but there were always many in the pond above. Standing in 
the shallows, they would stretch and flap their wings, and 
scream at the heavens ; then, ruffling their feathers, they would 
settle down, and, with much splashing, send the cold refreshing 
water all over their bodies, working it well into the skin with 
evident pleasure — judging by the chorus of shrill cries that 
accompanied the process. When this diversion was no longer 
possible, on account of the frost, occasionally they would cleanse 
themselves in the sea ; but only on the sunniest of days, and in 
a desultory manner, as though it were a duty, and never with 
any of the visible signs of enjoyment that characterised their 
frolics in the lake. 

Estimated by outward and visible signs, the skua-gull is a 
gentleman, and his mate a dainty, well-dressed lady — appear- 
ances being thus deceptive, for, except for their looks and 
cleanliness, there is nothing refined about either male or female ; 
both are scamps and malefactors. Full-grown skuias are about 
four feet from tip to tip, and there is little apparent difference 
between the cock and hen. Their plumage is a symphony in 
browns, varying from a soft fawn-coloured breast, to rich, 
dark-brown wing and tail feathers, which are well graduated, 
with lighter edges; and often there is a golden tinge about 
the neck of the male. On the pinions there is a broad streak 
of white, which gives the birds a remarkably handsome 
appearance when on the wing; this white band is less marked 
on the upper side of the feathers. 

Unlike the penguins — who greeted us as friends — the skuas 
regarded us as enemies, and became exceedingly fierce if we 
approached their nests. They were nesting when we landed, 
and I spent much time endeavouring to illustrate their habits 
— a none-too-easy task, which was rendered more difficult by 
the fact that some of our party failed to comprehend that the 
gulls were but exhibiting a natural instinct in objecting to our 
presence near their nests, and in endeavouring to frighten us 
away by threatening manoeuvres and harsh cries. Finding 



220 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

themselves attacked by several of our number, the gulls quickly 
regarded us all as enemies, whereas some of us were friends, 
and anxious only to study their habits. I endeavoured to gain 
their confidence, and found that they would not molest me as 
long as they felt I had no evil intentions. 

The skuas began to manifest the desire to nest in December, 
and many sites were submitted to trial before the location 
where the eggs were destined to be laid was finally decided upon. 
The nest was merely a slight hollow scooped out in the kenyte- 
covered ground, where there was fine gravel. The hen birds 
would try out one place after another, so that the cape was 
pitted with such * scoops ' that were never used. These 
unused nests puzzled me greatly, until I discovered the reason 
for their numbers. About the end of the year two eggs were 
laid, three inches long, of a greenish-brown colour with dark 
brown splotches. The eggs were incubated for three weeks. 

During this period, if anyone appeared near the nest the 
hen bird would utter piercing screams and squawks of fear, 
and, leaving the eggs, would follow the invader with bitter 
cries, whereupon she was quickly joined by her mate. The 
pair would then swoop down upon the interloper, as though 
with intent to attack; but courage usually failed at the last 
moment, just as the blow seemed imminent, and they would 
rise again without striking. The menace, however, was 
sufficient to make one careful, and when one day I did get a 
blow on the head — and a good hard one too — I deemed it 
wise to hold a ski-stick above me for protection in future. 
This was a certain safeguard, as the birds then went for the 
stick, and not for me. One could not always be on the watch, 
however, and as time went on I received several sounding 
whacks. The skuas never struck with their beaks or claws, but 
always with the joint of the wing, and the blow was usually 
delivered from behind. 

At Cape Royds the gulls were even more savage than in 
our own vicinity, and the above expedient availed us nothing 
against the disgusting practice they there had of vomiting on 
intruders. They would fly towards us from the rear, and, 



TRUCULENT SCAMPS 221 

carefully making allowance for speed and distance, discharge 
a nauseating shower of filth. Photography had to be done 
despite such discomforts, and though I protected myself with 
canvas and constant watchfulness, I was_ more than once the 
victim of this revolting habit — whilst the air was rent by what 
sounded to me very much like screams of sardonic laughter. 
The skuas at Cape Evans, though exceedingly truculent, 
were altogether better-mannered, and never exhibited this 
unpleasant trait. We accounted for this by reasoning that 
probably the same birds return yearly to the same locality, and 
that those at Cape Royds had learnt to adopt such defensive 
measures during the sojourn there of the Shackleton Ex- 
pedition. 

Once, at Cape Royds, when the skua chicks were hatching, 
I decided to kinematograph the process. Having selected a 
nest where the chicks were about due to appear, I set up the 
camera, focussed it on the eggs, and then went away — so that 
the mother might return and become accustomed to the 
machine. Later, I went to the nest again, and, finding that 
one of the chicks had now pipped the shell, I exposed a few 
feet of film. The mother was then permitted to return for 
half-an-hour, when more film was used — and so on for several 
hours. More than one nest was used to complete the film 
of the hatching of the eggs, as, had I interrupted the process 
too frequently with the same clutch of eggs, they would 
have been chilled and the chicks killed. 

When I was recording the final phase of one of the chick's 
kicking off the last bits of shell, the parents were swooping 
wildly around me, screaming with rage and fear as they heard 
the * peeping ' of the struggling little one. Just as I had 
finished the work and rose from my kneeling position, I 
received two blows in rapid succession, one on the back of the 
head and the other in the right eye. As I held both my arms 
close to my face for protection, two more blows were delivered, 
one just at the back of the ear, which almost bowled me over. 
Suffering acutely, I lay on the ground for an hour or more, 
my eye streaming with water, and I could see nothing with it. 



222 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

I really thought the eye was done for — ^as it probably would 
have been, had I not been wearing a heavy tweed hat with a 
wide brim. The joint of the gull's wing struck the brim of 
the hat, and beat it down against the eye; but for that wide 
brim I should certsinly have received the blow full in the eye, 
and probably have lost it. 

The infuriated birds made no further attempt to molest 
me as I lay on the ground, nor did they attack the camera 
either — seemingly comprehending that it was an inanimate 
thing that could do them no injury. Had they not attacked 
me, no harm would have resulted to the chick, for I had just 
finished the picture ; but by the time I had recovered sufficiently 
to take the camera away, the chick was frozen stiff, the parents 
had forsaken it and were nowhere to be seen. My eye was 
weak for many days afterwards ; but fortunately it had suffered 
no permanent damage, and it ultimately got all right again. 

Once, when I was photographing a clutch of eggs in the 
nest, and the owners were circling around, screaming loudly, 
another skua swooped down, and, snatching up one of the 
unprotected eggs in its beak, made off with it — the lawful 
owners following in hot and clamorous pursuit. Before they 
had gone far, the robber dropped the egg, which broke on the 
rocks; but the owners continued the chase, bent, I assume, on 
administering summary justice; though I did not see the end 
of the incident. Later, I learned by witnessing repetitions of 
such oft'ences, that any egg left unprotected for a moment 
was certain to be thus stolen. 

Having discovered this thieving propensity of the skuas, 
it was easy to understand why each nesting pair of the mis- 
creants regarded their neighbours with apprehension and 
hatred. 

Though two eggs were laid, and sometimes both were 
hatched, I noticed no instance where the mother had more than 
one chick after the first week. I do not know what became 
of the other : whether some cannibal neighbour made off with 
it, or whether the pangs of hunger had made the dainty morsel 
too tempting to one or other of the responsible pair, for — yes, 




SKUA CHICKS ONE DAY OLD. 




CHICK AND EGGS, SHOWING SIZE. 



[223 



INHERITED INSTINCTS 223 

I will state it, though it seems too horrible — I even suspect 
these unprincipled birds of the crime of eating their own 
young, for a dead chick was never to be seen. Whether my 
suspicions be well-founded or not, I must in common fairness 
state that the surviving youngster was always watched, pro- 
tected and provided for with irreproachable care. 

One day I came upon what I regarded as a real * find.' 
Approaching a sitting mother, who flew away to give sufficient 
height and distance to swoop at me, I discovered that there 
were two eggs and a chick in the nest. Delighted with what 
I supposed was an unprecedented case, I photographed the 
happy family. On reporting my find at the Hut, I found that 
I'd been ' had.' One of our party, having been attacked by a gull, 
had killed it with a stick, and then had placed the orphan 
chick in a neighbouring nest. Extraordinary to relate, the 
returning gull had mothered the little stranger, instead of eating 
it — a. departure from custom which could only be accounted 
for by the fact that the gull, being in a state of repletion, was 
hoarding the chick for the next meal. That any skua would 
voluntarily foster a strange chick with good intentions, I could 
not believe. The next day the chick was not there ! Further 
comment would be superfluous! 

The chicks are beautiful little creatures. Their down is a 
lovely pearl-grey, and they have blue-tinted beaks and legs. 
They can walk almost as soon as hatched, and seem to inherit, 
from the egg, the hatred of their kind which is so characteristic 
of the adult. When but a day old, any movement on the part 
of one of a pair would cause them to look daggers at each 
other ; and less than a week after they were hatched they would 
sometimes fight furiously without any provocation whatever, 
whilst the parent bird looked on approvingly. Several times 
I tried to kinematograph one of these * scraps,' without success. 
Whenever I appeared on the scene, the combatants forgot, for 
the time being, their dislike for each other, in their apprehension 
of what they regarded as a common foe. They glared fiercely 
at me, instead of at one another. 

During the incubation of the eggs the cock relieved the hen 



224 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

periodically, whilst she went off to feed ; and, later, when the 
chicks were hatched, he guarded them when she took a spell 
off for the same purpose. Returning to feed the little ones — 
or, perhaps I should say, little one ; for, as I have already stated, 
there was never more than one after the first week — she would 
retch a few times, and then vomit forth a mass of half digested 
food on to the ground, which the chick would go for greedily. 
I spent many hours in trying to kinematograph this habit, 
but in vain. On each occasion when — ^after standing still 
and silent as a statue for long periods — I began to turn the 
handle, as the mother was about to regurgitate, the moment I 
stirred she was frightened and stopped at once. Though I 
tried every manner of ruse — including keeping my hand 
moving as though working the camera, until I was compelled 
to stop from fatigue — I never succeeded in recording this 
interesting trait by moving-pictures. It was the clicking of 
the camera that defeated me. I think, however, the coveted 
record would have been secured, but for an unfortunate 
incident. By dint of stalking one mother and her chick for 
nearly twenty consecutive hours, I had got them thoroughly 
accustomed to my presence and the camera ; but whilst I went 
to take a few hours' sleep, someone killed the mother. When 
I returned to continue my vigil, she was lying dead on the 
ground, not twenty yards away ; and another gull had doubtless 
carried off the unprotected chick, for it was no longer to be 
seen. Fortunately, however, I had already made a * still ' 
photograph of the mother disgorging for the chick ; it was the 
only study of the kind I ever succeeded in getting. I vowed 
inwardly that when I returned home I would endeavour to 
have a noiseless kinematograph made, before I tried to secure 
moving-pictures of animals or birds at close quarters again. 

One day I was watching a group of a dozen Giant petrels 
that were sitting on an ice-floe — gorged to lethargy on the 
offal of a dead seal — ^when the big ungainly creatures were 
suddenly harried by several skua-gulls. I thought at first 
this was merely fun, or mischief, on the part of the gulls, and 
was not a little surprised — never having credited them with a 



aMMi 



CRAFTY AND REVOLTING HABITS 225 

sense of humour. I was soon undeceived, however, for it 
proved to be merely a cunning manoeuvre on the part of these 
crafty birds to get a meal on the cheap. Before the heavy 
petrels could rise on the wing and free themselves of their 
aggressors by flight, they had to disgorge the contents of their 
stomachs, and as soon as they did so the skuas fell upon the 
feast. Really, each fresh insight that I gained into the habits 
of these unlovable birds increased my dislike for them; but 
I think the limit of repulsion was reached when I saw a 
couple of skuas having a tug-of-war with a yard of a seal's 
intestines, which parted in the middle and sent the two ghouls 
sprawling — reminding me of a similar incident that I had seen 
several years before, on the banks of the Ganges near Benares, 
when a pair of vultures were all tangled with and tugging at 
the entrails of a corpse. 

The one great redeeming feature of this Antarctic pariah is 
the excellence of its eggs. A Polar appetite is calculated to 
reheve one of any little prejudices in the matter of food, and 
once one's antipathy to the bird is overcome sufficiently to 
try its eggs, one finds they are fit for an epicure. After all, 
barnyard fowls are not over squeamish about their diet, and I 
doubt if anything that a skua feeds on would be refused by 
them. Skuas' eggs, when boiled, are semi-transparent and 
jelly-like, and taste like the eggs of plovers — the only drawback 
in our case being that we could not get enough of them. The 
breast flesh of the skua-gull is quite good eating too. 

As the chicks grew older, they quickly lost the pretty 
appearance they exhibited when in the down. They became 
ugly, leggy creatures, bristling with stubbs, that ran away as 
fast as they could go — with backward, furtive looks — on the 
approach of man. As winter drew near ; as the daylight waned 
away; as the weather became frigid, and the sea froze over 
again, the gulls gradually diminished in numbers on our cape, 
until only those were left that watched their unprepossessing 
fledglings until they were able to take care of themselves. As 
soon as these ill-favoured youngsters were full-grown and 
independent, they and the last of the adult stragglers departed 
15 



226 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

too, and there was a peace around the Hut such as we had 
not known since our arrival in the South. 

And, let me confess it, I missed them. When they had 
gone, I wished them back again, I even longed to have them 
back ; for they had provided me with many interesting days of 
study when there was little else to investigate. And their 
savage and revolting ways were, after all, but instincts well 
in keeping with the pitiless conditions under which Nature has 
decreed that these buccaneers of the South shall struggle for 
existence. 



CHAPTER XX 

THE REAL INHABITANTS 

Of all creatures wtithin the Antarctic Circle penguins stand 
first and foremost in interest; and of the southern penguins 
there are more than half-a-dozen species — Adelie, Emperor, 
Gentoo, King, Ringed, Royal, and Victoria. Of only two of 
these can I write from personal knowledge — the Emperor and 
ithe Adelie — for we were many hundreds of miles south of the 
haunts of the others, and therefore I had no opportunity of 
observing them. We were unfortunately situated at Cape 
Evans for studying animals and birds, as, save for the skua- 
gulls, no living creatures frequented this desolate and unin- 
viting spur of the earth after the sea-ice had broken up. 
Occasionally Adelie penguins paid us a brief visit of inspection, 
or came to moult; and sometimes a seal landed to pass a few 
hours in slumber on our cape, but that was all. The locality 
that we had chosen for our base seemed to be in bad repute — 
an almost forbidden land to the denizens of the South. For 
almost all insight that I was able to gain into the habits and 
domestic life of Antarctic creatures I had to go miles away. 
Often I thought with longing of Cape Crozier and its zoological 
wonders; and envied those explorers who have had birds and 
animals swarming around their winter-quarters. 

My chief regret, on leaving the South, was that, though a 
fairly complete history of the life of the Adelie penguin had 
been recorded by camera and kinematograph, I had been unable 
to secure any moving-pictures of its larger compatriot, the 
Emperor. The life and habits of these beautiful creatures 
still remains to be illustrated; and he who succeeds in securing 
a complete animated pictorial record of them will render a 

227 



■ 



228 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

valuable service to science, and earn the lasting thanks of all 
zoologists. The difficulties before him will be many, and 
may prove insurmountable ; for these extraordinary birds breed 
in the depths of the Antarctic winter — during the months of 
constant darkness — when the * mercury ' hovers between eighty 
and a hundred degrees below the freezing-point. Not only 
will intense cold have to be endured ; but the lack of any light 
whatever will render kinematography impossible, unless 
sufficiently actinic flares can be devised for the purpose. 

An heroic effort was made by Dr. Wilson, Lieut. Bowers 
and Mr, Cherry-Garrard, of the present Expedition, to increase 
our knowledge of the Emperor penguins. For five weeks in 
the winter these three were absent from our midst, on a journey 
to Cape Crozier, for the sole purpose of studying the breeding 
habits of these strange birds. Their journey was one of the 
most arduous ever made in the history of Polar exploration; 
and in one respect it was unparalleled, in that it was under- 
taken during the period of greatest darkness. The results of 
the adventure did not come up to their hopes, owing to the 
tremendous difficulties encountered and the extreme severity 
of the weather; but much valuable knowledge was gained. 

Perhaps the most remarkable information that the party 
brought back was that these eccentric birds, not content with 
breeding in the coldest part of the earth in the coldest month 
of the year, do not even nest upon the land, but hatch their 
chicks on the ice that covers the sea. Obviously, eggs laid 
on the ice would chill quickly, so the birds incubate them 
standing — tucking the single tgg that is laid into a deep crease 
in the soft, downy feathers of the lower abdomen, where it is 
held in place between the feet. So great is the desire of the 
Emperor to incubate a chick, and so foolish is the creature, 
that Dr. Wilson averred he saw eggless birds thus brooding 
and endeavouring to hatch rounded lumps of ice; just as, 
during the Discovery Expedition, he found them incubate a 
dead and frozen chick if they were unable to secure a living 
one. 'Both Bowers and I, in the failing light, mistook these 
rounded dirty lumps of ice for eggs, and I picked them up 



■HHi 




AN EMPEROR PENGUIN. 



[229 



■■i 



A COURTLY CREATURE 229 

before we realised what they were. One of them I distinctly 
saw dropped by a bird, and it was roughly egg-shaped and 
of the right size,' wrote Wilson in his diary. 

He told us that when a party, during the Discovery Expedi- 
tion, first visited this place, they found a large number of 
chicks ; and such was the craving of the adults to possess the 
youngsters, that if one fell out of the downy abdominal crease 
in which it was being held by the parent, a rush was made for 
it by every chickless bird that witnessed the mishap, and in 
the common desire to secure and protect it, the little unfortunate 
was sometimes grabbed by half a dozen ' grown-ups,' and 
literally pulled to pieces. 

It all sounds almost incredible; bift surely one can believe 
anything of a bird that breeds in such a place, at such a season. 

It is probable, however, that the Emperor penguins do not 
breed at the coldest period of the year from choice ; but from 
the necessity of doing so thus early, so that their young may 
be old enough and big enough to fend for themselves at the 
end of the succeeding summer. It is not, however, so easy to 
understand why the birds do not migrate further north to 
reproduce their species. 

The first of the three Emperor penguins that we saw at 
Cape Evans before the winter darkness fell, came when the 
sea had frozen over as far out as the bergs that had grounded 
in two hundred fathoms off our cape. When I was testing the 
new ice — which was six inches thick near the shore — I spied 
him about a quarter-of-a-mile away, standing perfectly still, 
either asleep, or lost in meditation. He looked a perfect giant ; 
but, on getting my glass to bear, I found that this gigantic 
appearance was due to his image being reflected in the glassy 
ice on which he stood. Summoning two of the men, Anton 
and Clissold, who were near at hand, I went out to interview 
him. As we approached, he came forward and bowed his 
head in greeting, with 'a grace that a courtier might envy.' 
We clumsily returned this salutation; whereupon his majesty 
made several more genuflexions. After this ceremonial, he 
gazed at us ; and then advancing to within two yards, delivered 



230 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

a short speech in penguin language, to which we endeavoured 
to make appropriate replies. It was obvious that the com- 
plaisant bird, never having seen our like before, took us for 
fellow creatures, and was extending to us a friendly greeting; 
but he appeared to be much puzzled at our speech and hilarious 
demeanour. Though he must have thought us a set of dull- 
witted churls, as we stood there like yokels, in comparison 
with his perfect self-possession and faultless manners, making 
silly attempts to imitate him; yet this polished gentleman of 
the eternal snows exhibited no annoyance. He graciously 
began the whole formality over again; uttering a further 
speech in soft, guttural accents, accompanied by more 
punctilious bowing. I 

Thinking he might at any moment take alarm at our 
stupidity — and strict injunctions having been given to every 
member of the Expedition to endeavour to capture any 
Emperors we might meet with — I treacherously took advantage 
of his trust, and slipped about his dhest a noose which I had 
hastily made in the web of my camera shoulder-strap. The 
moment he felt the strap about him, he lost all confidence, and, 
becoming thoroughly alarmed, flopped down on to his breast 
and made off on * all fours,' with a precipitancy that jerked the 
strap away. But Clissold managed to catch it, and the eighty- 
pound bird went scrambling off over the glassy ice, dragging 
the cook spread-eagled behind him. Anton joined in the chase ; 
which now became a rough-and-tumble, with the great bird 
flapping and kicking, and the two men hanging on and trying 
to hold it. I have never seen a more absurd sight. With 
every semblance of dignity thrown to the winds, the now 
ridiculous creature was making prodigious efforts to reach the 
water, thirty yards away, and was gradually dragging Clissold 
and Anton with him. As the ice began to bend beneath their 
united weight, I shouted to them to let him go, for now I 
began to fear that comedy might end in tragedy. Just at that 
moment, they both got a firm hold of his legs ; and the unhappy 
bird, blown with exertion, was caught securely. Much pro- 
testing, he was then led by the web and a ski-stick to our Hut, 



ttfl 



f^ 



ADELIE PENGUINS. 


J 

i 



[231 



^s 



LOVABLE LITTLE PEOPLE 231 

where, under the influence of an anaesthetic, he joined our 
zoological collection. We softened the qualms of conscience — 
for our perfidy in taking advantage of the trusting creature's 
confidence and friendliness — with the thought that science 
demanded the despicable act. 

Our captive was a fine specimen, standing nearly four feet 
high; he was in beautiful plumage, with a snowy white breast, 
and grey-black back, and there was a collar of orange merging 
into yellow about his throat. The feet, head, and eyes were 
raven black, and the long curved beak was edged with violet. 
We found that he turned the scale at over eighty pounds. 
Some Emperors have been known to weigh as much as ninety. 

No Antarctic creature has endeared itself to explorers so 
much as the Adelie, or Black-throated penguin. There is no 
memory that those who have penetrated into these Polar seas 
cherish so much as their meetings with these busy, lovable 
little people — for one cannot help thinking of the Adelies as 
fellow-creatures. Penguins are the real inhabitants of the 
South Land. The proud, stately Emperors — with their 
courtly, polished manners — are the upper classes, the aristocrats 
of the eternal snows; but the Adelies are the multitude, the 
bourgeoisie. It is said that when Anatole France first saw 
warm-water penguins he wept. One wonders what the famous 
litterateur would have done if he had seen Adelies. He might 
have wept still more — with laughter. 

The Adelie penguin was so named by the French explorer, 
Admiral Dumont D'Urville, when he discovered — and named 
after his wife — Adelie Land, in 1840. 

Neither Emperor nor Adelie penguins have ever been trans- 
planted from the Antarctic regions — to which they are indi- 
genous. The penguins to be seen in our own and continental 
zoological gardens are habitues of temperate seas, and possess 
neither the beauty of the incomparable Emperor nor the cap- 
tivating drollery of the Adelie. 

From the first hour that we saw Adelie penguins in the 
pack-ice, we found their quaint ways and curiosity intensely 
interesting; and this feeling deepened to real affection as we 



232 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

got to know more of them. My great regret was that we did 
not see enough of them. We were just a few leagues too far 
south; for the furthest south penguin colony known was 
situated at Cape Royds — some seven or eight miles north of 
our own cape. The occasional visitors that honoured us were 
always welcomed ; and the interest we took in them was certainly 
mutual, for they regarded us with equal curiosity. Sometimes 
small roving parties would come and inspect our Hut, our stores, 
our sledging-gear, and the dogs. The dogs were a never-ending 
source of wonder to them, and inspired in them no fear 
whatever. In their desire to examine more closely these wild 
beasts — for the instinct of the dogs to kill was instantly 
aroused at the sight of any living creature — they sometimes 
lost their lives by the merciless teeth. The survivors of the 
party never learnt anything from such bloodshed; and, more 
than once, two or three of the little innocents shared the same 
fate one after the other. 

This roving tendency of the penguins is charaoteristic. 
They wander for miles over the ice at times, seemingly aim- 
lessly. They are also very fond of exploring the land; for no 
other object, so far as we were able to discover, than to see 
something of the world — for there is nothing ashore for them 
to eat, and therefore no incentive for such excursions, other than 
curiosity. They had little use for our sterile and featureless 
peninsula; but a considerable colony made their headquarters 
at Cape Royds — whereby they exhibited excellent judgment, 
for Cape Royds is quite an interesting and not unpicturesque 
locality. Practically all my observations of Adelie penguins 
were made there. Barring their occasional visits of inspection 
of our stores and dogs, the penguins only used our promontory 
as a convenient place to moult; during the two summers we 
were in the South, a few dozens took possession of the extreme 
end of the cape for that purpose. 

This lack of interest in our cape was probably due to the 
fact that they found no part of it suitable for nesting purposes. 
In order to incubate and hatch their eggs with a minimum of 
risk, penguins require a situation as free as possible from snow ; 



«■ 



COMEDIANS OF THE SOUTH 238 

therefore they choose exposed ground, where the wind gives 
the snow little chance of settling. Though our cape was 
swept by storms, its conformation was such that snow accumu- 
lated on it almost everywhere, and it did not melt until the 
height of summer; the locality was therefore unattractive to 
the penguins. 

Adelie penguins exhibit at times remarkable instincts and 
judgment; at other times their stupidity is almost incredible. 
Their pertinacity is exemplary, their curiosity ludicrous, and 
their bravery amazing. A full-grown adult stands about two 
feet high, and though it is one of the most grotesque of birds, 
it is certainly one of the most beautiful of Polar creatures. 
It would be difficult to imagine anything more handsome than 
the contrast of the raven-black and snow-white plumage of its 
new coat after moulting, unless it be that of the elegant and 
more highly-coloured Emperor. Though the feathers are short 
and stubbly, they combine into a smooth coat which exhibits a 
beautiful sheen; and the only touch of colour about the Adelie 
is the feet, which are pale salmon-colour. The back, head, 
neck, and upper side of the wings (or flippers) are black; the 
whole of the breast, underside of the flippers, and the legs are 
white; and the Adelie is the only known penguin with white 
eyelids and white rims round the eyes. It is these white rims and 
eyelids that give the Adelies such a quaint appearance; and 
which, combined with their droll habits, make them the 
comedians of the South. 

One's first interview with Adelies leaves an impression some- 
thing like this. You are out on the ice, when you meet a 
company of marionettes, dressed in swallow-tail coats with an 
excessive expanse of shirt-front. They are all standing at 
ease, muscles relaxed, clothes fitting atrociously — all loose and 
baggy, as though the owners were clad in * reach-me-downs.' 
You become an object of interest. Each marionette suddenly 
stands to attention ; and the floppy clothes immediately become 
the most beautifully-tailored and ' spic-and-span ' of garments. 
A perfect little knut of a fellow then steps out from the 
crowd and approaches you with a ' Charlie Chaplin ' gait. 



234 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

He is evidently well-disposed and peaceably inclined; but 
somewhat wary, palpably wondering what manner of 
penguin you are. Your proportions perplex him; of that 
there can be no doubt, for he regards you first out of one 
eye, and then out of the other, with obvious suspicion. If 
you move ever so slightly, his head goes back, his beak up 
in the air, and he squints at you with both eyes; at the same 
time the poll feathers ruffle — a sure sign tliat he is alarmed, 
and perhaps a wee bit angry too. When within a couple of 
yards, still transfixing you with a squinty stare, he challenges 
you with a defiant and raucous * squawk ' — a demand that you 
declare your intentions. The squawk is not difficult to imitate, 
and, if you are wise, you attempt to do so. You find your 
effort has an appeasing effect, for it proclaims your kinship, 
though you are not understood, and are probably regarded as 
something of a fool. The whole party then advance to inspect 
you, squawking their opinions to each other. 

It is well to * get in ' a few bows about this time, and to 
affect the air of an Emperor, muttering after the manner of 
their kind as you do so. You find that such efforts are well 
received, though doubtless considered loutish. If you remain 
moitionless, all misgivings will be allayed, and the spokesman 
and his friends will relapse into a bunch of baggy misfits and 
bother no more about you. But if you have the misfortune to 
give offence in any way, the chances are that the little valiant 
will go for you; and if he does, look out! He will seize your 
nether garments above the knee in his beak, and lay about you 
with such a rapid rain of blows with his flippers — which are 
hard as bone and can hurt like anything — that unless you cry 
mercy and beat him off, you will find yourself bruised black 
and blue. 

The procedure at these meetings varied a good deal. When 
the spokesman squawked in challenge, and we answered 
* Quaawk ! ' he would usually repeat what he had said ; then, 
finding it impossible to get any intelligent reply, he would go 
and apparently say to his companions : * There's something 
wrong with this chap. I can't make out what he's talking 




ADELIE PENGUINS AT CAPE ROYDS. 



=34] 



^m 



LOOKING BACKWARDS 235 

about. You have a try ! ' Then several would come, and all 
start talking to us at once. Finding, however, that they could 
make no headway with us, they talked to each other about us. 
We hoped their comments were favourable; but from their 
expression and demeanour we felt somewhat inclined to 
doubt it. 

But far away in the background of all this comedy, there 
is much of scientific interest about the penguins ; and there is 
more than a touch of the pathetic too. It is well known that 
as conditions under which animals live change, the animals 
in course of time change too — limbs either developing or 
deteriorating, according to the use that is made of them. We 
know that the Polar regions have not always been desolate, 
ice-bound wastes. Ages ago, very different conditions pre- 
vailed. The climate was of a mild, if not tropical nature; 
and that either forests or peat-beds abounded is proved by 
the outcrops of coal-measures discovered in the very limited 
geological examination that has so far been possible. Exhaus- 
tive prospecting perhaps might prove the presence of vast 
deposits; though, even if discovered, it is unlikely they would 
ever be of any economic value, as the region is too inaccessible. 

In those distant, temperate ages, the penguins possessed 
the power of flight, and lived either on the vegetable growth or 
insect and small animal life of the land. As the climate 
changed, and became so cold that all life and vegetation died, 
the penguins, like the seals — which were at one time land 
bears and roved through the forests — had to seek their living 
in the sea. As ages passed, their wings — like the legs of the 
seals — adapted themselves to the purpose of propulsion through 
the water, with consequent loss of power as a means of flight. 
The penguin, in short, is a creature that is not progressing; 
but in the course of ages it has retrograded. 

As I got to know the Adelies better, close observation dis- 
closed more than one indication that, hidden away in some 
corner of the brain, hazy instincts of powers, which ages ago 
they possessed, are still transmitted. At the Cape Royds 
colony several times I saw an Adelie, as a skua-gull flew over- 



236 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

head, closely watch the bird; then suddenly rise on its feet, 
stretch itself to its full height and flap its degenerate wings, as 
though in the effort to follow its inveterate enemy. The whole 
gesture was expressive of the desire that unquestionably 
animated it. It said as plainly as words : ' Oh, how I wish I 
could fly ! ' 

And again, I have often seen penguins sleeping with their 
heads bent sideways, and their beaks buried well in the breast 
feathers, by the joint of the flipper. What else can prompt 
this habit but the rudimentary instinct that impels birds of 
many kinds to roost with the head tucked under the wing ? 

Should the climate in these regions, in future ages, once more 
become temperate or torrid, as vegetable growth and animal 
life again evolved on the land, the penguins would probably 
again develop as birds, and in time recover the powers they 
have lost. The Weddell seals would take to the land and 
revert to land bears; whilst the Sea-leopards might become 
terrors of the forest again — always provided that they found 
it easier to make a living on the earth than in the sea. Nature 
works by natural laws ; she compels every wild creature to earn 
its living and to struggle for existence, and whilst all seek 
the line of least resistance, she watches the balance, and sees 
that supplies are equal to the demands that are made upon them. 

On my return from the South, I spent my first Christmas 
on a holiday in the Alps. One evening, at one of the Swiss 
winter-sports hotels, I was invited by a number of ladies to 
tell them something of my Antarctic ex;periences. I had 
just imparted the above information about our Polar friends, 
when one charming member of my audience, who had been 
listening with every feature intent, and her eyes full of interest 
and sympathy, remarked — as I referred to the degeneration 
of the penguins, which has been going on for ages — with 
tender feeling in her voice: 'Oh, what a shame! Couldn't 
something be done to stop it? ' 

The delightful artlessness of that remark was worth all the 
discomforts entailed in gathering my experiences of penguins. 

Penguins possess great speed in the water; and, so far as I 






PENGUINS AT PLAY 287 

was able to see, gain it entirely by means of their powerful 
flippers, letting their webbed feet drag behind them. I cannot 
be sure on this point, as they always swam so fast; but I 
believe it is established that penguins do not use the feet in 
swimming, except as accessory rudders to the tail. In the sea, 
the same natural law obtains that rules the forest — the strong 
prey upon the weak. As the penguins do not require this 
great speed for catching the small shrimps on which they feed, 
one knows that it has been provided by Nature as a means of 
avoiding their natural foes, the Sea-leopards and the Killer 
whales. 

Adelie penguins have a habit of leaping along the surface, 
much as dolphins do, which we called * porpoising.' This is 
a very rapid mode of progress, and they use it frequently, 
especially in sunny weather. I think they often do this purely 
for fun, as once I watched a number playing a game, which 
irresistibly reminded me of the song * Follow the man from 
Cook's ' in * The Runaway Girl.' They would string out in 
a line behind the leader and porpoise along the surface of the 
water; then double back on their tracks and strike off in 
another direction. 

There were some ice-floes near, and the * man from Cook's ' 
made for them, leading his party under some floes and over 
others, sometimes porpoising along the water, then toboggan- 
ning over the ice. They followed in a line behind the leader, 
doing exactly as he did. The fun became fast and furious, 
and I suppose they got a bit winded; for, after a while, the 
courier gave them a rest. Following his lead, they all sprang 
on to an ice-raft ; then, still imitating his example, they settled 
down on their breasts and basked awhile in the sunshine — prior 
to doing a few more laps. That they all thoroughly enjoyed 
the game there could be no possible doubt. 

It was not until the third week of November, that I was 
able, accompanied by biologist Nelson, to make a second visit 
to Cape Royds, after illustrating the seal life at Razorback 
Island. As the weather was fair, we camped on the snow, 
instead of taking up quarters in Shackleton's hut. 



238 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

Most of the penguins had by that time mated, and had 
begun to incubate their eggs. But, scattered about the rookery, 
there were many couples standing expectantly beside their nests, 
looking somewhat worried — no egg having as yet arrived. 
Either a dearth of males, or a lack of gallantry on their part, 
seemed to be indicated by the number of females who stood 
about the place, as yet unattached, looking very disconsolate 
in comparison with the businesslike air of the mated and sitting 
hens. There is no difference in appearance between males and 
females; but we assumed that these lonely individuals were 
hens. In each case the eligible one had either taken up her 
position beside an old nest site, or had scooped a little hollow 
in the ground. Here she stood and waited for a male bird to 
come along and pay court to her, making no attempt to build 
a nest on the selected spot. 

Occasionally these lonesome females would indulge in an 
extraordinary practice. Standing upright in their excavations, 
they would gaze intently into the heavens, and, slowly waving 
their flippers, give throat to a soft, guttural, humming sound 
— ^as though abandoning themselves to a state of rapture. This 
ecstatic condition never lasted more than about fifteen seconds, 
but it seemed to be exceedingly infectious. As soon as one 
bird started, others in the vicinity would at once follow suit, 
until sometimes a score or more might be seen in this state of 
beatitude, humming and flapping in unison, I first interpreted 
the performance to be a cry for a mate ; but, later, I saw mated 
hens, with eggs, conducting themselves thus — ^and supposed 
they were calling for their husbands. Subsequently, as I saw 
both husbands and wives behaving so together, I had to 
* give it up,' and confess that I had no idea what the habit 
could mean ; unless the birds were under the influence of some 
sensation that is common to both sexes, and peculiar to the 
breeding-season — for I never saw them perform thus except 
when nesting. 

I was glad to note that all these lonely females found their 
vigil at last rewarded; during our stay they all became mated, 
and I witnessed several of these fateful meetings. I observed 




ADELIE PENGUINS IN A STATE OF RAPTURE. 




pp ." " 





THE 'STONY STARE. 



THE 'GLAD EYE. 



238] 



NO LAGGARD IN LOVE 239 

one bachelor land at Cape Royds almost immediately after our 
arrival. At that time there was no open water visible through 
my glass, though from a hill, 700 feet high, named High 
Peak, I could see ten miles beyond Cape Bird — ^which is 
thirty miles from Cape Royds. This penguin must therefore 
have tramped at least forty miles over the ice. Small wonder 
the pilgrim appeared fatigued! 

He staggered up the slope leading from the sea to the 
breeding-ground, rolling about in an inebriated sort of way 
from sheer weariness of the flesh, and came to a halt within a 
short distance from where I had taken up my watch with a 
camera. Having reached his destination, and too exhausted 
to go another step, the trim little figure sank into a baggy 
misfit, all huffed up, vainly trying to keep open the eyelids that 
v/ere obviously as heavy as the weary feet. Thus he stood, 
propping himself up with his stiff tail-feathers — ^which 
penguins always use as a sort of third leg to preserve balance 
when standing upright — tucked his head under one of his 
flippers, and fell asleep. In about ten minutes he suddenly 
became alert, and, jumping on to a stone near-by, proceeded 
to take stock of his surroundings. This, evidently, was no 
laggard in love who would permit a rival to surpass him in 
chivalry; for, jaded as he still was, after a few minutes' 
survey, he leapt off the stone and proceeded about his courting. 

Advancing to the nearest of the eligible hens, he inspected 
her critically, from a distance of a yard — ^walking leisurely 
around her as he did so. During this scrutiny the lady took 
no notice of him whatever, merely looking coy. But, for 
some reason or other, she didn't seem to please him; he went 
off without a word, and she looked after him in the most 
comical manner, as though scarcely believing it possible she 
had been rejected. Two more hens were then inspected, and 
in turn passed by, after a careful estimate of their merits. But 
when this ' young Lochinvar ' met the fourth of the eligibles, 
without inspecting her at all he stood vis-a-vis, and bestowed 
upon her an ardent glance which I can only describe as the 
' glad eye.' Far from responding in the same spirit, the lady 



240 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

received this fond look with the most frosty of stony stares. 
This, however, did not dismay our friend; on the contrary he 
seemed to make up his mind to tame the Httle shrew. 

Picking up a small stone in his beak, he advanced, and laid 
the offering at her feet. He then looked up into her face and 
said * Quaawk ! ' — to which remark she deigned no reply, nor 
took any notice of him whatever. He then brought and 
oflFered another stone, with the same result, and yet another 
— each time looking into her eyes, and saying ' Quaawk ! ' 
On the tendering of the fourth or fifth stone, her disdain 
began to break down, and she regarded him critically; where- 
upon, he stretched himself to his full height for her inspection. 
He was obviously approved and accepted on the spot ; for they 
both began squawking a raucous duet, stretching their necks 
and swaying their heads from side to side and gazing sky- 
wards as they did so. 

Now it was quite plain what all this meant. Penguins 
make their nests of stones, and the offering of them was unmis- 
takably in the way of a proposal of marriage. Later, I saw 
a hen receive her would-be suitor in a very different frame 
of mind. She seemed to be a shrew not only in looks, but in 
nature ; for, each time the male bird tendered an offering, she 
would scold and peck him apparently savagely. But this did 
not discourage her suitor; and, as he valiantly persisted in his 
attentions, I concluded that this rough treatment was in the 
nature of caresses. His endearments, however, were of a 
gentler and altogether more humane character. After subduing 
the little scold by much coaxing and persuasion, he would nibble 
at her mouth, and take her beak into his own — ^the while she 
sat on the ground and trembled visibly. 

All this love-making was very interesting to watch; but its 
course did not always run smoothly. Cock penguins are not 
only of a very amorous, but they are also of a very 
pugnacious disposition. As later arrivals reached the rookery, 
it was not unusual to see two cocks fighting for the favours of 
a single hen, though there were unmated hens, near-by, to be 
had for the asking. 




Pr 


a 




I 


2 


\ 



WANTED— A HUSBAND. 



THE PROPOSAL. 




THE INSPECTION. 



THE BETROTHAL. 



240] 



A BULLY VANQUISHED 241 

Once I saw a swashbuckling bully deliberately make love to 
a hen — who cowered on the nest — under the very eyes of her 
mate. The husband loudly protested, in vigorous squawky 
accents; and then went for this Lothario. A battle royal 
ensued ; and blood was soon flowing freely, for penguins fight 
with beaks and flippers and deliver savage pecks and cuts. 
When one of the combatants got a fair hold, he would hang 
on to his opponent and rain blows about him so rapidly that, 
whilst one could hear the whirr of them, the movement was 
too quick for the eye ; or, he would hold one flipper at the guard 
and deliver cuts with the other, if for a moment his opponent 
were unwary. The snowy breasts of both contestants were 
soon streaked with blood, and their heads swollen from the 
pecks that reached their mark as each aimed for the other's 
beak and eyes. I ran to get my kinematograph bearing on 
the battle ; but before I could do so it was over ; the defeated 
bully was beating a wobbly retreat, leaving the rightful pro- 
tector blood-bespattered, but without a stain upon the honour 
for which he had fought. 

Such scenes were common among the community about this 
time, and became more frequent later; for, after all the hens 
had met their affinities, belated cock penguins caused much 
trouble. Unable to find mates, they became shameless pro- 
fligates, and seemed to make it their business to break 
up the domestic happiness of the more fortunate earlier 
arrivals. 

To the Adelies we were, of course, just as incomprehensible 
as we were to the Emperors and the seals. If we didn't bother 
them, they didn't bother us. They made no objection to our 
presence on the breeding-ground, so long as we did not intrude 
too near their nests. I found it advisable to keep absolutely 
motionless when observing them. To move about, v/as only 
to disturb their thoughts ; with the result that they immediately 
ceased any particular habit in which they might be engaged. 
One day, whilst standing thus, a penguin waddled up to me 
and placed a pebble at my feet, saying ' Quaawk ! ' as he did so. 
I made no movement, and he presented me with another stone, 
16 



242 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

and still another — each time squawking loudly. Thinking to 
encourage him as he said ' Ouaawk ! ' after dispositing the 
fourth stone, I replied with as near an imitation as I could — 
with the immediate result that he fled on all fours as fast as 
legs and flippers would enable him. 

Day told me that a similar incident occurred to him, during 
the Shackleton Expedition, and he looked upon it as a demon- 
stration of friendliness, I endorsed this theory: modesty 
forbidding me to entertain the only alternative explanation — 
that my admirer took me for an exceptionally well-developed 
female penguin, and was making love to me. 

After the birds had mated, they busied themselves with the 
building of the nest, whilst awaiting for the arrival of the 
eggs. Now, the building of a penguin's nest is an almost 
interminable affair. It is made of stones; and as the demand 
for stones for this purpose is greater than the supply in the 
immediate vicinity, petty larceny is a common offence. 
Penguins are habitual thieves, and cannot resist the temptation 
to pilfer a stone from a neighbour's nest whenever a chance 
occurs. Constant vigilance is necessary to prevent this 
robbery. It was the duty of the male bird to collect the 
stones ; which he brought, one by one, in his beak to his mate, 
who arranged them in order about her. There was no 
building in the true sense of the word; the stones were merely 
laid on the ground, and incessantly re-arranged. 

The stealing that attends the making of the nests is one of 
the characteristics of a penguin colony; it was a source of 
constant amusement to us, for it continued during the entire 
period of incubation. As the colony filled up, all the available 
stones on the breeding-ground were used; so that unless late 
comers searched further afield, their only chance of securing 
any was by robbing earlier arrivals. New stones, that had 
not been previously used for nesting, were not in much demand ; 
preference was always given to those which had been used for 
years for a similar purpose — well-rounded stones, with all 
interstices well clogged up from much service, being most 
appreciated. But when the available supply on the breeding- 



INVETERATE THIEVES 243 

ground was exhausted, hitherto unused stones from the adjacent 
hills were occasionally brought into circulation. 

It was a common sight to see a cock sally out, and, stealthily 
creeping up behind a sitting hen, snatch a stone from her 
collection; then, with conscious guilt stamped all over him, 
make off with it — a chorus of protesting squawks and pecks 
being aimed at him by every penguin that he passed on his 
homeward way. After delivering the prize to his mate, he 
would repeat the raid in some other direction. It was the 
duty of the hen to protect the hoard thus feloniously accumu- 
lated. Neighbouring nests sometimes plainly showed the 
result of vigilance, or of lack of vigilance on the part of the 
hens ; or of lack of courage or deftness on the part of their 
mates. Some nests were full of stones ; whilst others, near-by, 
were almost devoid of them. A poorly-furnished nest was 
usually due either to stupidity on the part of the hen, or to 
ignorance of the wicked ways of her kind. Once, I watched 
a husband diligently working away, stealing, and bringing 
stone after stone to his wife; but as soon as his back was 
turned, another thief would edge up — seemingly interested in 
anything else in the world except the stone he was after — and 
suddenly make a dart for it and be off, whilst the hen appeared 
incapable of understanding what was going on almost under 
her eyes. 

The hens thieve too, but in a different way. There was one 
little group of nests in circular formation, situated so close 
to each other that each was v/ithin reach of its neighbours. 
Never-ceasing robbery went on here, for as frequently as one 
hen stretched out her neck to steal from the nest in front, her 
neighbour behind seized the opportunity, whilst she was off 
her guard, to abstract a stone in her rear; and each back-door 
neighbour round the circle did the same. Thus, four or five 
were sometimes simultaneously being robbed, whilst themselves 
engaged in robbery — the net result being that the balance 
remained even, as the stones merely circulated round the ring. 

I will not go so far as to charge all penguins with being 
instinctively dishonest; I believe young birds may be honest 



244 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

enough at first, but they speedily become corrupted by the 
evil example of their elders. If they begin life with equitable 
instincts, they soon find that honesty is a poor policy; and 
the upright fall easy victims to the unscrupulous. 

One day I watched a young newly-mated pair who were 
obviously inexperienced in the ways of the world, and trustful 
of their fellow-creatures to the point of folly. After the 
stone-offering preliminaries had been gone through, and they 
had abandoned themselves for a time to a state of rapture, 
they began to set about the building of the nest. The male 
bird went in search of stones; and as each fresh one was 
added, the hen casually adjusted them about her, in the 
customary manner, by wriggling, and with her feet. When 
about twenty stones had been accumulated, a knavish-looking 
fellow — one of a pair of older newly-mateds who were settling 
in the vicinity — spotted the treasures. Sneaking up behind 
the young hen, he quietly made off with one of them, without 
being noticed. Then, as fast as the young and honest husband 
added a fresh stone and departed to continue his search, the 
thief crept up again, and stole another; and sometimes he 
nianaged to purloin two or three stones whilst the honest 
husband was finding one. This went on for an hour or more ; 
and as the thief's wife had extraordinary ability in arranging 
the stones, the nest of the dishonest ones became a little castle, 
whilst the virtuous pair were gradually deprived of everything 
they had. After a time, the honest husband took a rest, to 
inspect the fruit of his labours, and was obviously troubled 
to find no visible result, A good deal of discussion ensued 
between the pair, neither of whom seemed capable of compre- 
hending the trick that had been played upon them. 

There was something very human in all this. How often 
is it not the case that honest workers are defrauded of the 
results of their labours, through simplicity, or through over 
confidence in those whom, in their simple faith, they had 
believed to be their friends? 

Most penguins, however, are filled with suspicion of their 
neighbours, and constantly dart distrustful glances to the rear 





r-ajm-.-A.!^-'" ■^' ■- i-^- I- ^.-i-i 



BRAWLING HENS 245 

and sideways; these are not easy victims. If a thief were 
detected in the act, he would usually brazen it out and dash 
off with the prize. But sometimes he would drop the stone 
as though it were red-hot — pretending to be interested in the 
weather, or else his toe-nails, or anything on earth except the 
stone he coveted — with an assumed expression of innocence 
that was too funny for words. 

Suspicion of their neighbours engenders in the hen penguins 
violent hatred, and is the cause of constant brawling and 
dissension. It was quite common to see hens, on adjacent 
nests, with outstretched necks pecking savagely at one another. 
Sometimes their beaks would be interlocked for minutes, and 
the heads of many were swollen and bleeding from such 
conflicts. During these squabbles, the neighbours in the rear 
of the brawlers would regard the opportunity as favourable 
to purloin stones from the nests of the quarrelsome ones — 
and embrace it. 

The period of incubation of the eggs of the Adelie penguin 
is about five weeks; and both male and female brood them 
in turn. The formality of relieving guard was accompanied 
by a good deal of ceremony. The returning cock, spotlessly 
clean and glossy from immersion in the sea, would, on 
reaching his nest, bow several times to his partner — making a 
soft, gurgling sound in his throat, as he did so. He would 
describe circles in the air with his head, still gurgling; and 
the hen would raise her head, stretch her neck, and describe 
circles and gurgle too. This would continue for some time, 
before she would permit him to have a look at the precious 
eggs; then, after much coaxing, she would stand up, and 
both would examine them with evident pleasure. It appeared 
to be a source of much satisfaction to the returning bird to 
find that the eggs were all right, and he was anxious to take 
charge of the treasures at once; but invariably the hen 
exhibited great reluctance to abandon them. Much wheedling 
had to be gone through before she could be persuaded to 
transfer the guardianship to her mate; consequently, relieving 
guard was a ceremony that usually took a good deal of time. 



246 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

In the end, she would submit under protest, and sidle reluctantly 
away from the eggs ; the cock would then quickly cover them, 
and, adjusting them with his beak, carefully subside on to 
them — whilst his ' better-half ' took a spell off for feeding 
and relaxation. 

Adelie penguins' eggs are about the size of a goose's; they 
are either white, or of the same shade as a duck's, but have 
much coarser shells. They are excellent to eat; the white 
being semi-transparent and gelatinous, and the yolk delicate 
of flavour. Two eggs are laid, with an interval of three or 
four days between. They are laid on the bare stones which 
form the nest, and are kept warm during the process of 
incubation by being enveloped in a deep crease in the thick, 
downy feathers of the lower abdomen. This crease permits 
of the eggs coming into close contact with the skin. The eggs 
are frequently turned, so that warmth can be applied equally. 
They are also aired from time to time; meanwhile the sitter 
takes the opportunity to stretch and flap his, or her, flippers, 
and occasionally to indulge in a few ecstatic exercises. 

The operation of airing the eggs is always attended by a 
certain amount of risk. The skua-gull is the relentless enemy 
of the penguin, and, from the moment the birds began to 
nest, numbers of these corsairs haunted the vicinity, to prey 
upon their eggs. They would stand about on the adjacent 
rocks, or soar in circles overhead — ^always on the watch to 
catch a penguin off its guard, when they would immediately 
swoop down and snatch up an tgg. This pillaging was done 
with wonderful rapidity. A penguin would be unsuspectingly 
airing its eggs — the while stretching its flippers or perhaps 
indulging in ecstatics — when there would be a rush of wings, 
and, before the victim realised what was happening, the 
marauder had snatched up one of the exposed eggs in its beak, 
and was gone. I saw many eggs thus stolen ; but I never saw 
the thief miss an egg, nor drop it. The victim of the outrage 
would raise a squawky * hullaballoo ' for a few moments, and 
then settle down with an air of resignation, and worry no 
more about it. 



SOME REMARKABLE FILMS 247 

Between witnessing a skua-gull plundering a penguin's nest, 
and photographing the act, there is a great gulf fixed; but I 
succeeded in bridging it, after vainly watching for hours, 
motionless, with my kinematograph levelled on some nest — in 
the hope that the tenant would air its eggs, and a gull seize 
the opportunity to steal one. I finally decided that the 
incident would have to be ' produced ' — just as any drama 
film is produced — and the various characters concerned would 
have to be made to play their parts. 

Accordingly, the instrument was focussed on a certain nest, 
and the owner, much protesting, was removed and tied up out 
of the way; then I stood by and waited. In a few minutes 
a gull hovered around, and swooped down at the eggs ; but as 
soon as I began to turn the handle of the camera, it took 
fright and flew off. Again and again it returned; but each 
time with the same result — the bird was frightened. So I 
adopted the expedient of keeping my hand moving; thus, 
when I did turn the handle I was merely continuing the 
motion. This had the desired effect. The pirate, becoming 
bolder, at last pounced upon an tgg and carried it off; and 
I had the incident recorded on the film. It soon returned for 
the other; and again the theft was filmed. The owner then 
was released, and its return to its pillaged home was also 
recorded ; also, its concern over the loss, and its final ' it can't 
be helped ' attitude and expression, as it settled down on the 
bare stones with resignation. 

The unwilling heroine of the tragedy was disturbed again 
for a moment, to be compensated with two fresh eggs — taken 
from two other nests. Her amazement was quite droll when 
she found the eggs were now restored. She accepted at once 
the substituted ones, and flopped down on to them; but she 
rose to inspect them several times, to make sure she hadn't 
deceived herself. Then, seemingly casting the whole recol- 
lection aside as some horrid dream, she settled down to 
business, and went on with her incubation duties. 

The day was a memorable one, for remarkable success 
attended my efforts. The gulls had now become so accustomed 



248 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

to my presence, that they ignored it; and the next raider was 
so contemptuous of me — though the camera and I were not 
ten feet from the nest — that, instead of flying hastily off with 
the egg which it had snatched up, it stood there, facing me, 
with the Qgg held in its beak. Subsequently, it, or another 
gull — ^as I could not distinguish individuals — repeated the 
manoeuvre twice; and each time stood truculently facing the 
camera, holding an egg. Both these incidents were also 
kinematographed. This remarkable habit was thus not only 
proved by the indisputable evidence of the camera; but the 
resulting films show clearly the manner in which the gull 
holds the egg in its beak — not impaled on it, as reported by 
some observers. ^ 

The filibusters did not always wait for the eggs to be 
exposed. Several times I saw a gull fly down and attack a 
penguin from the rear, snatching up an egg as the bird rose 
and turned round to resist. On such an occasion, the victim 
would raucously squawk her rage at the thief; and, rising on 
tip-toe, would vainly stretch and wave her flippers, as though 
to say: * Oh! If only I could fly, wouldn't I thrash you! ' 

The gulls never attempted to engage in conflict with the 
penguins, as they are no match for them, and took good care 
to keep out of reach of their beaks and hard-hitting flippers. 
But the poor Adelie is at a great disadvantage in being unable 
to fly, or even to jump off the ground ; only by constant watch- 
fulness against its inveterate enemy can it hope to hatch its 
eggs and rear a family. 

On one of my visits to the Cape Royds colony during the 
breeding season, the temperature, in the few hours about noon, 
rose nearly to the freezing-point; consequently, the melting 
snows caused the waters of a small, near-by lake to rise to 
such an extent that some of the nests became flooded, and were 
deserted by their owners. Others, more resourceful, re- 
arranged the stones as the water rose, in the endeavour to 
save the eggs from harm. All the nests in this ill-chosen 
place were finally forsaken, however, as the gulls took 
^(ivantage of the general commotion to steal the eggs. 



HABITS EXPLICABLE AND OTHERWISE 249 

Although it was more sheltered than the higher ground, only 
a few birds had built in this low-lying locality. This was 
probably due to the fact that the place was known by the older 
inhabitants to be subject to this danger. I assumed that the 
flooded-out unfortunates were some of the younger and less 
experienced members of the colony. 

As I got to know more about penguins, I realised that the 
more wind-swept the ground, the better it was for breeding 
purposes. Snow was apt to drift in the low-lying places, and 
those that settled there had a miserable time of it. 

Occasionally, I noticed that almost every penguin in the 
colony, whether sitting or standing, was facing in the same 
direction; whilst at other times they would be facing every 
point of the compass. I was for a while puzzled by this 
unanimity of front; until I remembered that Lafcadio Hearn 
had once asked his Japanese rikislm runner why it was that 
a number of birds sitting on a telegraph-wire all faced the 
same way. The literal translation of the reply of the kurumaya 
was : ' Little birds always wind-to facing sit.' 

There lay the explanation. Surely enough, when all the 
penguins faced in a certain direction, it was from that quarter 
the breeze was blowing; and as often as they were facing 
haphazard, it invariably happened that there was either no 
wind at all, or none worth mentioning. 

When the Terra Nova passed the Cape Crozier rookery 
on the night we entered McMurdo Sound, we had seen, 
through our glasses, penguins performing the most astounding 
athletic feats — leaping from the sea on to an ice-foot six feet 
high, or more; but no such performance was to be seen at 
Cape Royds. The formation of the cape was such that they 
always came ashore leisurely, at the place known as Dead 
Horse Bay. 

It is remarkable that any penguins should take the trouble 
to go all the way to Cape Royds, when they could breed at 
the Cape Crozier nesting ground — which, though about the 
same latitude, is on the Ross Sea coast, and is. therefore, in 
jnost seasons, at least thirty miles nearer open water as the 



250 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

summer commences. Except in years when an unusually 
stormy winter and spring prevents the sea from freezing 
thickly, McMurdo Sound remains frozen for weeks after the 
ice in the open sea has broken up. One can only account 
for the Cape Royds penguins taking all this trouble, by the 
supposition that, having been bred here themselves, instinct 
constrains them to return to their native place to reproduce 
their species. Even so, one would scarcely suppose that their 
forbears would have been so foolish as to travel such a distance 
in the mere hope of finding a suitable breeding-place. 
Probably, the original pioneers of the colony landed at Cape 
Royds in some unusually stormy season, which either prevented 
the ice from forming in the Sound, or else broke it up early 
in the spring. This, of course, is mere conjecture, as it is 
impossible satisfactorily to account for much that penguins do. 
For instance, at Cape Adare, where our Northern Party 
wintered, Adelies were known laboriously to climb the hills 
to a height of a thousand feet or more — which took them hours 
— and to make their nests there in preference to the shore below, 
where there was ample room for them. Also, when we passed 
Cape Crozier we saw numbers of Adelies nesting hundreds of 
feet up the mountain slopes — for apparently no other object 
than to command a better view, which was only gained at the 
expense of infinite labour. 

Foolish as the Adelie penguin appears to be in such incom- 
prehensible habits, it seems, however, a Confucian sage in 
comparison with the pompous Emperor. The little Adelie 
chooses the warmest months of the year to rear its young, 
when constant daylight prevails; whereas the preposterous 
Emperor breeds in the coldest part of the Antarctic at the 
coldest time of the year, the period of perpetual night — surely 
the limit of eccentricity if, indeed, it be not the penalty of 
necessity. 

At the beginning of December, the weather being fine and 
apparently settled, I started off alone from our Hut for Cape 
Royds. But a recent slight fall of snow had made the surface 
very heavy, and, after almost exhausting myself by dragging 



A BLIZZARD BREAKS 261 

the sledge for two miles, I had to give it up and return for 
assistance. Anton, the Russian groom, then came with me; 
and, as I expected to be absent not more than twenty-four 
hours, I announced my intention of returning the next evening. 

As events turned out, it was fortunate I had not been able 
to make the journey single-handed, and had found it necessary 
to return for help ; otherwise I should have had a lonely time 
of it during the next ten days. We found the surface worse 
as we proceeded, and the going became harder each successive 
mile; so that we had to strip to our under-shirts, because of 
the terrific exertion — though there was about 10° of frost. 
As we drew near to Cape Royds, the snow was so thick 
that it became almost impossible to move the sledge. Not 
having expected anything like this — and knowing there were 
ample supplies in Shackleton's hut— we had brought nothing 
to eat; consequently, we both became weak from lack of 
sustenance and the great muscular eif ort. Our empty stomachs 
finally compelled us to leave the sledge, and go on to the hut 
for food. We soon had a fire blazing in the stove, and 
prepared a meal of canned chicken, peas, biscuits and cocoa, 
from the abundant stores left by our predecessors of the 1907 
Expedition. Never did food taste so delicious. After thus 
restoring our tissues, and our trembling muscles with rest, 
our sinews became as wire. Feeling like giants refreshed, 
we went out to the sledge and made light work of hauling it 
up to the hut; then we turned-in in our sleeping-bags. 

As meteorologist Simpson had not notified me of any indica- 
tion of a possible change of weather, I was surprised to find 
it dull and stormy when we woke up ; later, a blizzard broke 
which lasted for three days. After the wind abated, the snow 
continued to fall; not of the usual powdery kind to which 
we were accustomed, but in great flakes. When it ceased, the 
drifts were five or six feet deep around the hut. Durmg the 
storm we had been 'hard put to it' to find and excavate 
supplies from the stores, and we had to search waist deep for 
broken packing-cases for fuel; so we did not lack for exercise 
to keep ourselves warm. 



252 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

When the weather finally cleared, looking towards the 
penguinry we could see nothing but snow, where formerly 
had been many hundreds of birds. Not knowing what had 
become of them, or whether they had deserted the place — as 
there was not a single individual to be seen — I determined to 
investigate. Anton and I arduously made our way for a 
couple of hundred yards to the breeding-ground, but there 
was no sign of a penguin anywhere. The snow was more 
than knee-deep; and, as I was floundering about, wondering 
whether my penguin investigations had come to an abrupt 
end, I was almost ' scared out of my life ' by a muffled 
squawk, and felt something wriggling under my foot. I had 
stepped on the back of a sitting penguin — ^buried nearly two 
feet deep in the snow ! 

As the victim struggled out, loudly protesting its wrath at 
this outrage, we were convulsed with laughter; then, roused 
by our noisy mirth, scores of black heads, with * golly wog ' 
eyes, suddenly protruded from the snow — to see what all the 
row was about. That was how we discovered them! They 
had not deserted the place; but were attending to their domestic 
duties under the snow— patiently waiting for it to blow away. 
There were penguins everywhere; it was impossible to walk 
without stepping on them. All had their necks craned upwards, 
and in most cases their breath had melted an airway in the 
snow; others, however, were completely snowed in, even the 
airway being covered by a thin film — ^but that in nowise 
discouraged the persistent creatures. 

After the snow had ceased to fall, it was remarkable how 
quickly it flattened down under the ablating influence of the 
wind and the sun ; even an hour made a visible diflFerence. As 
quickly as possible, we laboriously got the kinematograph and 
a camera on the spot ; but by that time the points of numerous 
beaks were beginning to appear above the surface. A little 
later, many of the more deeply snowed-up birds had been 
compelled to forsake their nests and had made their way out; 
they were soon tramping all over the place, helping out the 
levelling process of Nature. 



NESTING UNDER DISMAYING CONDITIONS 253 

It was obvious that the sitting birds must be suffering great 
misery; for the heat of their bodies melted the snow about 
them, so that their once neat, clean nests were now but bogs 
of slush, in which the eggs lay wet, and, as I then thought, 
chilled beyond all hopes of hatching. Occasionally an 
individual seemed to realise this, and forsook its nest; but the 
majority refused to abandon hope of rearing a family, and 
stuck to their swamped and bemired homes with a tenacity that 
was pathetic. But whatever commiseration I felt for the 
penguins, their tribulations were met, on their part, by the 
same * It can't be helped ' unconcern with which they always 
faced trouble. Truly the more I learned about Adelies, the 
deeper it was impressed upon me that mankind might learn 
from them some salutary lessons. 

After two days of fine weather and comparative peace, 
another and much fiercer blizzard broke, and the hut creaked 
and groaned with the force of the wind. When gusts of 
almost hurricane force struck it, it shook and rattled on its 
temporary foundations, so that at times we almost feared it 
might collapse — as it probably would have done, had it not 
been well stayed on the windward side with wire ropes. It 
was bitterly cold ; but the deep snow prevented us from finding 
packing-cases to break up for firewood, and we had not collected 
a sufficient supply to keep the fire alight. We had to con- 
serve carefully the few sticks we had, for cooking purposes. 
Unable to go outside the hut, and with nothing to do inside it ; 
as Anton's conversational powers were limited to a few 
sentences in broken English, we spent the greater part of the 
next three days in silence in our sleeping-bags. 

On the evening of the third day the blizzard ceased, and 
the weather became gloriously bright and sunny. Once more 
we toiled — waist deep in snow — to the penguinry, and I used 
some additional hundreds of feet of film recording the manner 
in which the undaunted creatures were conducting their 
domestic affairs under truly dismaying difficulties. 

Though the fine weather continued, I was unable to take 
further advantage of it, as there was nothing else to illustrate. It 



254 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

was exasperating to be thus helpless in these sunny days, and 
I was impatient to get back to winter-quarters, and proceed 
with other work. 

On the tenth day after our arrival, I plodded through the 
snow to the sea-ice, to find if the surface were settling down 
and hardening sufficiently for us to end this enforced inaction, 
and return to Cape Evans. But the snow was still half-a- 
yard thick, and much too soft to travel on without ski, which 
we had not brought with us. Then I struggled to a hill-top, 
in order to reconnoitre the northward horizon with my glass, 
to see if open water were yet in sight. But though it was 
now December 10th, there was nothing but ice to be seen. On 
looking towards the south, I espied two black specks on the 
snow off Cape Barne, about three miles distant, which I took 
to be Emperor penguins. Examination showed that they 
were not penguins, but two men making for Cape Royds. I 
could not identify them at that distance; but surmising that 
they were coming to render assistance, and that, whoever they 
might be, they would arrive with robust Polar appetites, I made 
my way back to the hut, and instructed Anton to prepare a 
hot meal. When they came up, they proved to be meteorologist 
Simpson and Ciissold. Knowing we had come away unpre- 
pared for so long a stay, they had come over on ski, as soon 
as the surface permitted, to help us to return home. We gave 
them a warm welcome, and they did not manifest any tardi- 
ness about accepting our invitation to the feast we had pre- 
pared. 

Our thoughtful comrades had brought two spare pairs of 
ski, which they had dragged behind them; so we were now 
free to return with them. After they had rested for a couple 
of hours, we all buckled on these footgear, harnessed ourselves 
to my sledge, and returned to Cape Evans. 

Owing to the frequent periods of bad weather that followed; 
and as there was so much work for all at Headquarters; and 
a party of three had to leave with further supplies to be 
depoted on the Great Ice Barrier, I was unable to visit Cape 
Royds again until four weeks later. On January 7th, once 



THE CHICKS HATCHED 255 

more I proceeded to the penguin colony, accompanied by 
Meares and Dimitri, who had recently returned from their 
journey to the Beardmore Glacier. 

Almost all the chicks were by that time hatched, though 
even then there were still a few belated eggs to be found. 
This was fortunate, as I was thus able to secure moving- 
picture films of chicks just emerged from the shell, as well as 
of youngsters more advanced in the first stages of a perilous 
existence. Luckily, the weather kept fine; and I spent some 
exceedingly interesting days in recording the habits of the 
penguins and their chicks on hundreds of feet of film and 
many dozens of photographic plates. 

The chicks were little dusky fellows, thickly covered with 
coats of smoke-grey down; but, unlike the little skuas — which 
can run about almost as soon as hatched — the young penguins 
were quite helpless for the first few days. After that, they 
grew with incredible rapidity — as I could tell from neigh- 
bouring chicks which I knew could only be a few days older. 
As scores of nests had been wet and slushy after the snowstorm 
of my previous visit, I had then supposed the eggs must be 
chilled beyond redemption, and that there was no possible hope 
of their hatching. Yet, wonderful to relate, in hundreds of 
those selfsame nests there were now two lusty chicks. 
Perseverance and determination to ' stick it out ' had accom- 
plished miracles. The Adelie penguin has, from that time, 
been to me the emblem of persistent effort. I know of no 
other creature from which man may learn a finer lesson of 
how resolution and steadfastness of purpose may overcome 
every difficulty, than from the Adelie penguin. 

The colony, which on my first visits in the present season 
had presented a somewhat indolent appearance — as almost all 
the birds had been incubating their eggs — had now taken on 
an aspect of bustling activity. There were many hundreds 
of little stomachs to be kept filled, and this necessitated ceaseless 
effort on the part of those responsible for their filling. The 
parent birds went about the work with a most business-like 
air. An intermittent stream of individuals proceeded sea- 



256 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

wards for food; whilst another stream, swollen with the loads 
they bore, flowed landwards. 

At this time, the open water was quite twelve miles distant; 
and though a line of birds straggled out towards it, some few 
went no further than a crack in the ice, two feet wide, which 
was less than a mile away. There were Euphausia to be seen 
in the water at this place, but either the Crustacea were not 
in sufficient numbers, or else the birds suspected danger — 
perhaps fearing the crack might close up and imprison them 
hopelessly — as most of them jumped over it, and tramped miles 
beyond ; but whether to the open water or some other wider 
crack, I could not say. 

On reaching Cape Royds, the returning birds made anxiously 
for their nests, and proceeded at once to feed their youngsters. 
This they did by bringing the food up into the gullet; when 
the chick put its head into the parent's mouth and partook of 
it. At first the little ones had to be coaxed and taught to feed 
— ^which was done by holding a morsel at the end of the beak 
and tempting the chick — ^but they soon learned to insert their 
heads into the parent's mouth and eat. From a week old they 
had voracious appetites, and clamoured continuously for more, 
until they became distended almost, it seemed, to the bursting 
point. Their paunches swelled visibly as they gobbled away 
greedily, and one half expected to hear them go off — ^pop! 
The parent became slimmer inversely as the chick expanded, 
and rapidly shrank from a bulging food-bag into a trim and 
elegant marionette again. 

As the chicks grew, they became a constant source of anxiety 
to their parents, who were hard put to it to feed and protect 
them from harm; for the ever-watchful skuas were always on 
the alert to pounce down upon the progeny of the unwary. 
The chicks were brooded by each parent in turn for the first 
few weeks; but after that they increased in bulk so rapidly 
that to cover them was no longer possible. By this time, 
however, their thick coats of down made them impervious to 
the cold. As they gained in size and strength, they began to 
wander away from the nests, exposing themselves to danger 




HERE ARE MY EGGS,' 



'AND HERE, THE CHICKS.' 




GETTING DIFFICULT. 



NO LONGER rOSSIl'.LE. 



256] 



I 



PENGUIN ORGANISATION 257 

from the gulls. This was a source of great anxiety to their 
elders, and it was a common sight to see a mother loudly 
squawking to a chick that was straying from the nest : ' Come 
back, you naughty boy ! ' 

The tendency of the chicks to wander; and the fact that 
it now became impossible for one parent to provide the huge 
quantities of food required by the two youngsters, brought 
a:bout a curious state of affairs, indicating that the Adelie is 
not lacking in organising ability. Little bunches of half-a- 
dozen or so chicks were to be seen in charge of several 
attendants. Either these chicks had wandered away from 
their homes, and, becoming lost, had gravitated together as 
companions in misfortune, and were being cared for by some 
of the kinder-hearted members of the community; or their 
respective parents had deputed certain of their number to 
protect the chicks whilst they themselves went off to forage 
for them. Dr. Wilson, during the Discovery Expedition, was 
of the latter opinion — that the chicks were thus herded together 
by the adults so that they could more easily be defended from 
the attacks of skua-gulls, whilst the parents were absent getting 
food supplies. 

As each food-laden adult returned, it was pounced upon and 
chased by half-a-dozen or more wandering youngsters, each 
making a piteous appeal about its hunger — for any parent is 
good enough for any chick so long as it is food-laden. But 
every parent was not prepared to stand and deliver to just 
any chick that challenged him; the besieged was almost 
invariably obdurate, and, turning a deaf ear to all appeals 
and blandishments, kept on his way to his own family creche. 

So numerous were the chicks thus meandering about, that 
I imagine many of these hungry little wanderers never found 
their way back to their own units again, and became hopelessly 
lost. Yet, as, somehow or other, they all managed to get 
fed, I took it that the lost — ^being * thrown on the parish,' so to 
speak — eventually came under the protection of some system, by 
which strays were taken in hand by charitably-disposed 
individuals. It is my belief that many of the chickless penguins 
17 



258 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

— having perhaps failed to hatch any offspring, or having lost 
them through misfortune — devote themselves to the praise- 
worthy object of supporting and protecting these lost youngsters. 

But the skuas were ever on the watch for them. Having 
become detached from their legitimate food and protection 
base, and being dependent on charity, they had to struggle 
with scores of others for such bounty as there was to be dis- 
pensed. Dr. Wilson wrote : ' In this race for life the weakest 
goes to the wall. A chick that cannot run down the old bird 
and its rivals in the race goes supperless. Needless to point 
out, the next race is still less likely to be successful, and the 
ohick is soon marked down by a roving skua, who quickly 
brings an end to its unsuccessful life.' 

When about four weeks old, the chicks begin to shed their 
down, and there is no longer any necessity for guardianship. 
By (that time they are almost as big as their parents, and are 
able to take care of themselves from the menace of the skuas. 
By then, too, the services of every available adult are required 
for procuring food supplies. So much confusion now prevails 
because of the fledglings running about, that it must be almost 
impossible for any parents to find their own offspring. It is 
probable thait a communal system exists for providing for 
and ra:tioning the entire mob of hungry youngsters, and that 
at ithis stage of their growth it comes into practice. 

During (the two weeks that the chicks are shedding their 
down they are extraordinary-looking objects, as they stand 
about with their glossy new coats showing through patches 
where the thick, fluffy covering has fallen off. But clad in 
their new white-and-black suits, with a few obstinate patches 
of the old raiment still sticking to their backs, their chests or 
the crests of their heads, they are a still more comical sight. 
A little tuft on the poll is usually the last to go, and as soon 
as it disappears the youngsters are ready for the water. They 
never attempt to enter the sea whilst any down remains. 

Before receiving their baptism in the element in which they 
must henceforth seek their living, the youngsters spent their 
last days ashore in fasting. They left the higher ground, and 



IN THE MOULT 259 

stood about in groups on the slope leading to the sea, or on the 
ice- foot overlooking it. When the wind blew the last patches 
of fluff from their polls, they looked exactly like their parents 
in all save bulk ; and except that they had no white rims round 
their eyes. This white ring forms after the young Adelie is 
a year old, and is an easy means of distinguishing adults from 
chicks. Having lost the last remnants of their baby-clothes, 
the chicks made for the sea, and after some hesitation plunged 
headlong into it. 

Once I saw some old birds porpoising about amongst a bevy 
of the newly-baptised youngsters, obviously coaching them in 
swimming and various tricks. The chicks seemed to be 
enjoying the new experience, but, from the snorting sounds 
they were making, I imagined they were not finding it alto- 
gether easy to keep the water out of their nostrils. 

When I left Cape Royds on February 21st, after my first 
visit in 1911, there was not a single young penguin to be seen; 
for, once they had taken to the sea, they speedily adapted 
themselves to the new conditions of life, and returned to the 
scene of their infancy no more that year. It is believed that 
Adelie penguins spend the winter in the pack-ice ; and that the 
young birds do not return to land to breed until they are two 
years old. The only remaining members of the former 
multitude, on the above date, were a score or so of old birds 
that had gone into the moult as soon as their family responsi- 
bilities ceased. These unfortunates stood about in such poor 
shelter as they could find — the picture of misery, with their 
moth-eaten-looking garments hanging in rags about them. 

On returning to our winter-quarters, I found a number of 
moulting penguins at the end of our own cape, and I had 
them under observation for two weeks, during which time they 
fasted. As they never enter the water when in the moult, 
they are unable to procure food ; consequently, what with lack 
of sustenance, and exposure to the awful storms and extreme 
cold, the uphappy creatures became so weak that they could 
hardly stand, and some of them died. When finally the 
survivors had got their beautiful new coats of raven black 



260 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

and snowy white, they were hardly recognisable as the fat and 
prosperous-looking * people ' of a month ago, for they had 
shrunk to half their former ample proportions. 

Similarly as with the chicks and their down, just as soon 
as the last rags of their old coats had fallen from their 
emaciated bodies, they staggered to the edge of the sea, and 
fell rather than dived into it — where, with good food and 
plenty of it, we hoped they were able to recover their strength 
before they encountered the perils that there awaited them. 

Long ere the great night had fallen on the Antarctic solitudes, 
they were doubtless far on their way northwards — on that 
migratory trek that all Adelie penguins make as the approach 
of winter begins to darken the midday heavens. Our hope 
was that they might overtake, on the way, the offspring th^y 
had so conscientiously raised ; our earnest wish, that we might 
see them all again, when once more the triumphant sun had 
vanquished the legions of Jack Frost. 

Note. — The photograph reproduced on the opposite page was taken 
at midnight. 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE RETURN OF THE TERRA NOVA 

We might now hope to see the ship again as soon as the ice 
broke up and drifted out to sea. The previous summer the 
Terra Nova had moored to the ice-foot off Cape Evans on 
January 4th; yet now, a week later in the season, nothing but 
ice could be seen in the Sound, from High Peak, Cape Royds 
— eight miles north of our Hut. There was, however^ a 
* water sky ' in the distance, from which I estimated that 
there was open sea at Cape Bird, about thirty miles away ; and 
out in the Sound to the west the ice had appeared to be in a 
rotten condition for some time past. 

Each day, from Wind Vane Hill, I scanned the horizon with 
my Zeiss 12 X, to see if the Terra Nova were in sight. I 
could tell from the appearance of the clouds that the open 
water was daily drawing nearer ; but the pack was very heavy, 
and there were many icebergs on the northern horizon. 

About noon on January 17th, I was leisurely sweeping the 
north with the glass, when suddenly the masts of a ship came 
into the field of view. For a moment I could scarcely believe 
my eyes; but there could be no doubt about it. They were 
the masts of a barque; but presenting an extraordinary 
appearance, for they towered unnaturally high above the sky- 
line. Then I saw that what I was looking at was but a mirage. 
The real ship was hull-down below the horizon, and only the 
masts were visible. Above them, a wonderful mirage of the 
entire vessel, hull and all, appeared inverted ; and over this first 
reflection there was a second image of the ship, upright. It 
was the upper image that I had at first seen. 

Though we had observed many mirages of distant objects, 
nothing like this had been seen before. It was a most 

261 



262 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

remarkable illusion; but the Terra Nova was undoubtedly there 
— about thirty miles away. 

I ran towards the Hut, shouting excitedly, * The Ship ! The 
Ship ! ' Simpson and Nelson came running out immediately, 
and dashed up the hill. I handed them my glass as they 
reached me, and when they had convinced themselves that the 
ship was really there, we all cheered for joy. As, however, 
neither Simpson nor Nelson made any remark about the 
mirage, I took the glass to have another look myself; but to 
my surprise it was no longer visible. I told Simpson about 
what I had seen, but he was quite incredulous, and seemed to 
think I must have imagined it. He said such phenomena had 
been reported before — ^as I knew — ^but that there was no 
instance on record of such a double mirage ever having been 
seen by a scientist. 

But I had certainly seen the marvel, whether authentic 
instances were known to science or not — and emphatiioally told 
Simpson so. It was equally certain, however, that it was not 
now to be seen. It was very strange that it should have dis- 
appeared. Simpson asked me where I had seen it from, so 
I pointed out the place — ^about ten feet lower than where we 
stood. We went to the spot, and, on looking again with the 
glass, there it was, surely enough — a double mirage, one inverted 
and the other upright. I handed the glass to Simpson, who 
could not doubt the evidence of his eyes, and was greatly 
delighted that he, a scientist, could henceforth affirm that he 
had seen the phenomenon himself, and he carefully sketched 
it. It was certainly remarkable that so slight a variation in 
elevation as ten feet should make so much difference at a 
distance of thirty miles. 

We were all very happy to know that news of home was 
so near once more; but, as events transpired, it was to be 
several weeks before the ship's party would be able to com- 
municate with us, owing to the heavy nature of the pack-ice. 

The First Supporting Party, as it was called — Atkinson, 
Wright, Cherry-Garrard and P.O. Keohane — ^brought the first 
news from the Polar Plateau on January 28th. We were glad 



NEWS FROM HOME 263 

to learn that all was well, and that the rest of the caravan 
were ' going strong ' at the summit of the Beardmore Glacier, 
where this reinforcement had left them. They brought back 
a number of plates and films which Scott and Bowers had 
exposed. I developed these with great care, and was delighted 
to find that many of them yielded excellent negatives. 

We watched daily, and the ship drew nearer from time to 
time as the ice in the Sound broke away. In stormy weather 
she would put out to sea for safety, and reappear a few days 
later, nearer than before. It was not until February 3rd, 
however, that she came near enough for Meares — who, with 
Dimitri, had returned from the Barrier a month ago — ^to drive 
out with a dog-team and communicate with those on board. 
He returned an hour later with two great bags of letters 
and papers; so we all spent the next few hours reading the 
news from home, and learning something of the events that 
had occurred in the great crowded world from which we had 
been absent for so long. 

Two days later, the sea being open within two miles of the 
cape, the ship ran alongside the ice-foot and moored to it half- 
a-mile from the end of the Barne Glacier. It was good to see 
our friends again, and to hear all they had to tell us of their 
own doings, and of the winter cruise of the Terra Nova in 
New Zealand waters. 

When we had unloaded the stores she had brought, I lost no 
time in getting my gear aboard, and the old dark-room into 
order once more ; for, as the ship would be cruising to various 
points during the next few weeks, I decided to take up my 
quarters on board without delay. I knew that a storm might 
necessitate her getting under way at short notice; and, as it 
happened, the next day a blizzard compelled her to seek safety 
out in the Sound. 

When the storm ceased, the ship proceeded to the glacier 
at the foot of the Western Mountains, to pick up the Geological 
Party. It was only when we approached the far side of the 
Sound that we fully realised the height of those fine peaks, for 
their crests sank behind the foothills ere we approximated 



264 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

within a dozen miles of the ice- foot. After steaming for 
some time along the coast, we found and embarked Taylor's 
party. For three months they had explored and examined the 
valleys with searching eyes, and had gained volumes of informa- 
tion for the enrichment of their special branch of science. 

We ' watered ship ' at the glacier's edge, and then headed out 
of the Sound ; thence northwards, to embark Lieut. Campbell's 
party at Terra Nova Bay, in South Victoria Land — some 150 
miles north of Ross Island. The ship had picked up the 
Northern Party at Cape Adare on her way south, and had 
landed them at that place for Priestley to do a few weeks' 
geological work at the foot of Mount Melbourne. 

We were not, however, able to get within forty miles of the 
place where Lieut. Pennell had arranged to meet the party, 
owing to the heavy pack-ice inshore. A south-west gale rising, 
we rode the storm for two days, keeping a vigilant watch for 
drifting icebergs; and when the wind moderated a further 
aittempt was made. But the ship entered such heavy ice that 
it took more than thirty hours to extricate her from the 
newly-formed pancake floes, which were heaped up many 
layers deep on the surface of the sea for miles. It was a 
hard fight to get out of this bad ice ; and when at last we were 
free of it, the Terra Nova steamed back to Cape Evans — to 
embark the other members who would be returning home — 
prior to making a further attempt later. 

On reaching our cape, we heard that Lieut. Eyans had 
been brought back from the Barrier to the Discovery hut, 
seriously ill with scurvy ; and that Surgeon Atkinson was there 
in attendance on him. This bad news had been brought by 
Dimitri and his dog-team, five days before. The ship there- 
fore immediately steamed for Hut Point, where Evans was 
brought aboard in his sleeping-bag. Surgeon Atkinson and 
mechanic Lashly and Petty Oficer Crean also came aboard. 

The story of how these two brave men saved Lieut. Evans' 
life, and delivered their officer into the hands of the surgeon, 
is told briefly herein, in the chapter * The South Pole.' 

It was now necessary to make another immediate effort to 




Photo by F. Debenliam . 

Dickason. P.O. Abbott. 



P.O. Browning. Lt. Campbell. 
THE NORTHERN PARTY. 



R. Priestley. Dr. Levick. 




G. Taylor. F. Debenham. Lt. Gran. 

THE WESTERN GEOLOGICAL PARTY. 



P.O. Forde. 



264! 



CAMPBELL'S PARTY MAROONED 265 

reach Lieut. Campbell ; so the ship once more headed for Terra 
Nova Bay. The ice conditions had not improved, however, 
and it was impossible to get any nearer than on the previous 
attempt. 

Again the ship fought her way back to Cape Evans, where 
Simpson, Taylor, Meares and Day were embarked. Petty 
Officer Forde, and Clissold also came aboard, to exchange 
places with Petty Officer Williamson, and Archer, the ship's 
cook, who were landed. The Terra Nova then steamed again 
to Hut Point, to land Surgeon Atkinson and Keohane, who 
would there await the return of Mr. Cherry-Garrard and 
Dimitri — ^these two having gone by dog^eam to One Ton 
Camp on the Barrier, in the hope of meeting Captain Scott 
and the other members of the returning Polar Party. Lieut, 
Evans, who was steadily recovering, now that a fresh meat 
and vegetable diet was available, remained aboard to be 
invalided home. 

Henceforth, the party at Cape Evans were under the com- 
mand of Surgeon Atkinson, who, throughout the difficult 
situations and events that followed, bore this position of 
responsibility most ably. 

Every hour was now of importance, owing to the known 
bad ice conditions up the coast. The Terra Nova therefore 
left McMurdo Sound on March 5th, 1912, in a final effort 
to reach the Northern Party, before heading north for New 
Zealand. 

From Cape Royds onwards we found the ice had thickened 
materially in the Sound; and soon the incoming floes became 
so heavy that it seemed doubtful whether the ship could force 
a way through them. Between Beaufort Island and Cape Bird 
she became fast, and all hands were summoned on deck to 
make a united effort to roll her loose. The entire ship's 
company, except the engine-room staff, assembled amidships, 
and, at the word of command from Lieut. Bruce, ran 
from side to side of the deck periodically, in the endeavour 
to sway the ship slightly, to keep her from freezing in. We 
had to continue this strenuous work for several hours, with 



266 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

occasional spells for rest, whilst simultaneously the engine 
backed and filled. It was an anxious time, for should the 
Terra Nova freeze into the pack at this place, she might be 
crushed in the pressure of the incoming ice, if it should begin 
to heap up from the resistance of the land. Slowly we 
battered our way, fighting hard for every yard, until at last 
the united effort of steam and human endurance told. We 
crashed through the remaining buttresses of the threatening 
prison walls, and were out in the ice-scattered, but open sea. 

Once more the ship was headed for Terra Nova Bay; but 
the ice there was worse than ever. We could not get within 
ten miles of where we had been turned back at the last attempt. 
As the iseason was now far advanced, and ice conditions 
had become established that might remain for the winter, 
Lieut. Pennell was reluctantly compelled to give up further 
efforts to relieve the parity, and the ship's course was laid for 
New Zealand. 

The story of the adventures of the Northern Party is an 
almost incredible one. By the middle of March they realised 
that all hope of being picked up by the ship was at an end; 
they even feared the ship herself had met with some disaster. 
Their plight was, indeed, perilous. Marooned in the Antarctic, 
in the face of winter, and short of food and clothing and 
every other necessity — for they had landed with only a few 
weeks' supplies — only consummate leadership and resource 
could save them. And it did! In this unprecedented pre- 
dicament, they burrowed into a glacier with their ice-axes, 
and lived in that icy dungeon for six months, subsisting on 
the flesh of seals and penguins. Their life was one of the 
most extreme hardship; indeed, it almost surpasses belief 
that human beings could survive a Polar winter under such 
primitive conditions of existence, in such temperatures as were 
endured. Yet, thanks to the splendid leadership of that 
sterling officer, Lieut. Victor Campbell ; and to the magnificent 
spirit and bravery and resource of all, they passed through 
that terrible ordeal not only safely, but with hopeful, if not 
joyous hearts. 



HOMEWARD BOUND 267 

With the return of daylight, on October 1st, 1912, they 
abandoned their ice-cave, and started for Cape Evans, with 
two sledges and camping-outfits. After an adventurous 
journey down the coast and round the west side of the Sound, 
they reached the Hult, all well, on November 7th. The 
remarkable story of the Northern Party's adventures is briefly 
told in the second volume of ' Scott's Last Expedition ' ; and 
fully in Raymond Priestley's * Antarctic Adventure.' 

The day after we siteamed away for New Zealand, a Sooty 
albatross circled round the ship. This was a good omen, 
for these birds are never seen south of the pack. The 
portent proved to be a true one, and we encountered no more ice. 

Except for the gales we met with, the homeward voyage was 
uneventful. The climax of the bad weather was reached in 
55° 51' S., when, to quote the words of the Terra Nova's 
commander, Lieut. Pennell : * The most severe storm raged 
that was encountered by the ship during her whole commission.' 

The ship was now in ballast, and light ; and it was magnificent 
to watch her fighting the mountainous seas which seemed, at 
times, as though inevitably they must engulf her. One minute 
she would be in an ocean valley, with w'aves ahead and astern 
higher than her maintop; the next she would be on the 
summit of one of these watery peaks. The storm provided a 
thrilling subject for the last phase of our adventure that I 
recorded in moving-pictures. 

When a day's steam from land, we sighted a school of 
Sperm whales lazily spouting in the sunlit waves. They 
excited immense interest aboard, for these now rarely seen 
leviathans of the ocean are quite different from any other 
whales. Their heads, which are enormous, are shaped like 
the bow of a battleship. They spout diagonally forward, 
not vertically as do other whales, and the spiracle is in the 
front, instead of in the middle of the head. For some time 
the ship was manoeuvred in the hope that we might get near 
enough for me to secure some kinemaitograph records; but 
the great creatures were too wary, and kept a good quarter- 
of-a-mile out of range. 



268 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

On the morning of April 1st, 1912, the Terra Nova steamed 
into the harbour of Akaroa, New Zealand. Words fail me to 
describe my feelings as once more I saw that lovely land. 
Indeed, I doubt if it is possible for anyone to appreciate the 
glorious beauty of leafy trees and pasture-clad hills, bathed 
in the warm rays of the sun, as could those who had just 
returned from a year's existence in the barren, blizzard-swept 
ice and lava wildernesses of the Anitarotic. It all seemed 
like some wonderful dream. The Promised Land could 
not have appeared fairer to the Children of Israel, than did 
the green hills of New Zealand to me that day. 

A boat came out to greet us; and we heard that the Nor- 
wegians had reached the South Pole on December 14th, 1911, 
and that their expedition had returned home. 

We had always known that if all went well with the rival 
expedition the chances were all in favour of their being the 
first at the goal, as their base of operations was so much 
nearer than ours, and they had more rapid means of transport. 
Though we all felt much disappointed at this news, we were 
proud to know that the greatest of the earth's remaining 
geographical problems had been solved, and that the South 
Pole was a mystery no more. 

And we, who had spent more than a year in the Great 
White South, could, perhaps better than anyone else, realise 
the magnitude of Amundsen's achievement. 



17 Lony..!:: 



!80 



^25^^- 



)70 



^"^ BRITISH ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION I9ICH3. 



160 

70 



Part of the 

acoutoan^ ANTARCTsc Regions 

SHOWINGCAPTTSOOfTT'S SPHERE OF OPERATIONS 
"\Si^ett)oumc AND ROUTE TO the 




Stan^rdi Cecy'. £stab' londoa. 



CHAPTER XXII 
THE SOUTH POLE 

* Wild and wide are my borders, stern as death is my sway, 
And I wait for the men who will win me, and I will not be won in 

a day; 
And I will not be won by weaklings, subtle, suave, and mild, 
But by men with the hearts of vikings, and the simple faith of 

a child. 
Send me best of your breeding, lend me your chosen ones ; 
Them will I take to my bosom, them will I call my sons.' 

Robert W. Service. 

With some trepidation I realise that it is now incumbent upon 
me — having related my personal experiences of this great 
adventure — to give some account, in conclusion, of the attain- 
ment of the primary object of the Expedition — the reaching 
of the South Pole. I will endeavour therefore to do so, as 
briefly as is possible consistent with giving a clear idea of 
what that colossal task entailed. 

Though much bad weather was encountered, all went fairly 
well with the various members of the Southern Party for the 
first month after leaving Hut Point, except for the breakdown 
of the motor tractors. These machines gave constant trouble 
from the outset; the predominant complaint from which they 
suffered being overheating — due to their low gearing and slow 
progress. This necessitated frequent stops, to cool them; and 
invariably it happened that by the time the engine had cooled 
the carburettor and induction pipes were so cold that they had 
to be heated with a blow-lamlp before the petrol would 
vaporise. To start the engines under such conditions was 
not easy. Consequent on these frequent stoppages, the rate 

270 



FAILURE OF THE MOTORS 271 

of the southward advance of the motors did not exceed seven 
miles per day. But worse troubles were soon to come; two 
connecting-rods of Lashly's engine broke, and one of Day's, 
so that both tractors finally had to be abandoned, having 
aocomplivshed a total combined distance of about 140 miles. 

No praise could be too great for the persistence with which 
Day and Lashly struggled with these motors. Once, they 
worked all night — in a temperature of 25° Faht. below zero, 
in a stiff wind — ^and, regardless of frostbites and chills, they 
dismantled one of the engines, and substituted for a broken 
connecting-rod the only spare they had with them. Under the 
frigid conditions in which the work was carried out, this was 
a wonderful feat. It was rivalled by the manner in which 
these two toiled and laboured to urge and coax the refractory 
machines to render all possible service for the great end in view. 

Though the tractors did not realise the hopes that had been 
entertained of them, it should be understood that they were 
employed by Captain Scott purely as an experiment. He made 
all his calculations dependent on the likelihood of their breaking 
down ; so, when they did, his plans were not in any way upset. 

Knowing in what respects Scott's motors failed, and why, it 
would now be possible to build machines that would work satis- 
factorily in the Antarctic. To the memory of Scott must there- 
fore be given the honour due to a pioneer of motor traction in 
the Polar Regions, for he used it with a certain measure of 
success. 

When their machines finally had been abandoned, the four 
members of the motor party formed themselves into a single 
man-hauling unit; and pushed forward with as much of the 
former loads as they could haul, until, later, the pony units 
overtook them. 

The fodder depots, laid the previous summer, were located 
without difficulty, and as each fresh depot was laid it .was 
marked by the erection of a high snow cairn; smaller cairns 
were also raised at intervals of a mile or two between, so that 
any returning party might be able to find the way back in clear 
weather, without knowledge of navigation. 



272 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

Though it was now summer and the period of continuous 
daylight, it was still very cold — the temperature remaining 
many degrees below zero. The marches were made at night; 
and each morning breast-high snow walls were erected to shelter 
the ponies from the wind. Snugly clothed in their rugs, they 
rested in compara;tive comfort behind these barricades. 

Each day brought its problems and its difficiilties; but 
perusal of the Leader's diary shows that problems and difficulties 
were always met with the same buoyant hope and unflinching 
determination to solve and overcome them. Even when others 
were at times inclined to take a pessimistic view of things, 
Scott refused to be influenced by any adverse happenings, and 
confidently hoped and expected that all would be well. 

On November 7th, C. Meares and Dimitri — ^who had left 
Hut Point three days later than the main party — arrived with 
the dog- teams ; and, from now on, the dogs with their loads 
easily followed the less mobile pony party each day. 

The main caravan overtook the (now man-hauling) Motor 
Party on November 21st; three days later, B. Day and Hooper 
set out on the return journey to Cape Evans — which they 
reached safely on December 21st, having travelled about 250 
miles en route. Lieut. Evans and Lashly then joined the main 
party, and harnessed up with Surgeon Atkinson — whose pony 
had broken down and been shot — man-hauling the sledge. 

Atkinson's pony was the first to meet its predestined end. 
Each of the others would have to face the sacrifice which 
such work demands, as its load was depoted. Their mission 
in life fulfilled, the ponies in death rendered a further service 
to the enterprise, for their flesh was food for the men and 
dogs who carried on the work. 

All units now being united, the Southern Party was complete. 
From the time they struck out on the Great Ice Barrier, a few 
miles from Hut Point, the caravan had been travelling over 
the surface of the greatest known ice-sheet on earth. On 
December Sth, they had covered nearly four hundred miles, 
and were about twelve miles from the foot of the Beardmore 
Glacier. Here, * a raging, howling blizzard broke,' the worst 



I 




Photo by Capt. Scoit. 



SLEDGING IN DEEP SNOW. 





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rf .'^""^"B^PPl * 


%,. 


»tMt 


1 


1 


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Photo by Capt. Scott. 

CAMPING IN DEEP SNOW ON THE BEARDMORE GLACIER. 



[273 



SHAMBLES CAMP 278 

of the many storms that had been encountered since leaving 
Hut Point. It lasted four days ; during which time the party 
were compelled to camp. In this storm the temperature rose 
to a degree above freezing, causing intense discomfort from 
the melting snow, which was several feet deep. 

The delay, consequent on the blizzard, was a most serious 
matter ; and on the evening of December 8th, as the pony fodder 
was nearly exhausted, it was resolved to kill the remaining 
animals the next day. But the storm had ceased by the 
morning, and the march was resumed under appalling conditions 
in the deep snow. Only a few miles could be made, however ; 
and in the evening the ponies, exhausted by half rations and 
the great strain on their strength, were shot. The place was 
called Shambles Camp — the 31st camp since leaving Hut Point. 
* Poor beasts ! they have done wonderfully well considering the 
terrible circumstances under which they have worked, but it is 
hard to have to kill them so early,' wrote Captain Scott. 

The ponies' loads averaged something under 500 lbs.; and a 
minimum of 15 statute miles had been considered a necessary 
day's march. The journey from Hut Point to Shambles Camp 
had been made in 34 days, which, taking all delays into account, 
was an average of about 12 miles per day. On December 9th, 
the Southern Party were, therefore, about a week behind their 
schedule time — or nearly 100 miles north of the point Scott 
had hoped to have reached by that date. 

On December 11th, at the foot of the Beardmore Glacier, 
C. H. Meares and Dimitri handed over their loads, and started 
back with their dog-teams for winter-quarters. The dogs had 
done excellent work. They had come over 400 miles; trans- 
ported their drivers and their rations; 200 lbs. of stores were 
depoted, and 600 lbs. of food was turned over to the man- 
hauling parties that now went forward. Meares and Dimitri 
accomplished the return journey safely in 25 days, reaching 
Cape Evans on January 5th, 1912, after having made a short 
stop at Hut Point. 

The Beardmore Glacier is a pass in the Queen Alexandra 
Mountains, which border the Polar Plateau; the Southern 
18 



274 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

Party here left the Barrier, and had to make their way up this 
icy defile for more than 100 miles, and ascend some 10,000 feet. 
The caravan now consisted of three sledges, manned as 
follows : 

Sledge 1. Captain Scott, Dr. Wilson, Captain Oates 

and Petty Officer Evans. 
Sledge 2. Lieut. Evans, Surgeon Atkinson, Mr. Wright 

and Mechanic Lashly. 
Sledge 3. Lieut. Bowers, Mr. Cherry-Garrard, Petty 
Officers Crean and Keohane. 

The passage of the Glacier was beset with dangers, and with 
difficulties which at times were sufficient to dismay the stoutest 
hearts ; but difficulties are * part of the game ' in Polar explora- 
tion, and to overcome them is one of the lures of the South. 
Repeatedly both sledges and men were bogged in heavy snow, 
and the loads had to be transported piecemeal by relays ; rough 
broken ice and pressure-ridges formed almost insuperable 
barriers at times ; crevasses were frequent sources of peril ; and 
snow-blindness, produced by the glare, caused agony to several 
members of the party. But, scorning every discomfort, 
difficulty and danger with which hostile Nature barred the 
way, these intrepid souls pushed onward to success. 

Precipitous mountains flanked them on the west : mountains 
which only four human beings had previously beheld — 
Shackleton, Marshall, Wild and Adams. There was little 
leisure for studying scenery, yet Captain Scott and Lieut. 
Bowers took some excellent photographs of the principal peaks 
of the range — ^photographs which are proof of the care they 
devoted to this important work. 

The ascent of the Beardmore Glacier had been a tremendous 
task; and on December 21st, when near the summit. Captain 
Scott told off four more of the party to depot their surplus and 
return. His decision fell upon Atkinson, Wright, Cherry- 
Garrard and P.O. Keohane. The Leader wrote in his Journal : 

' All are disappointed — ^poor Wright rather bitterly I fear. 
I dreaded the necessity of choosing — nothing could be more 




Photo by Capt. Scoit. 



CAMP ON THE BEARDMORE GLACIER. 




Photo by Lieut. Bowers. P.O. Evans. Oates. Wilson. Scott. 

ON THE POLAR PLATEAU. 



274] 



GALLANTRY OF CREAN AND LASHLY 275 

heart-rending. . . . We said an affecting farewell to the 
returning party, who have taken things very well, dear good 
fellows as they are.' 

This, the First Supporting Party, as it was called, safely 
reached Cape Evans on January 28th, 1912, having covered 
the 500 miles in 37 days. 

By Christmas Day, the Southern Party were well clear of 
the Glacier, and out on the plain of ice which Sir Ernest 
Shackleton had named, in 1908, King Edward VII Plateau — 
having ascended 8,250 feet since leaving the Great Ice Barrier. 
Lashly celebrated the day by dropping through the snow lid 
of a crevasse, and almost dragging the rest of the party after 
him. With some trouble he was pulled back to safety. 

On January 4th, when about 150 miles from the Pole, height 
10,200 feet above the Barrier, Lieut. Evans, Lashly and Petty 
Officer Crean were told off to return, and depoted their surplus. 

The story of the adventures of this Second Supporting Party 
on their homeward way is a stirring one. Briefly, it is as 
follows. Before they had reached the foot of the Beardmore 
Glacier, Lieut. Evans became ill, and was found to be suffering 
from the Nemesis that dogs the heels of all Polar explorers, 
scurvy. He became gradually worse; but, with life at stake, 
struggled on until within a hundred miles of Hut Point, when 
he could go no further. His companions, Lashly and Crean, 
then pulled him on the sledge for four days; then a heavy 
snowfall made such transport any further impossible. Evans 
owes his life to the strength, courage and devotion of these two 
men, and to their resource in this dilemma. Whilst Lashly 
stayed to nurse him, Crean set out, in threatening weather, to 
march the thirty-five miles to Hut Point, for help. It was a 
forlorn hope; but he accomplished the feat in eighteen hours, 
reaching the Discovery hut in a state of exhaustion. Tom 
Cf can's lone march that day was one of the finest feats in an 
adventure that is an epic of splendid episodes. 



276 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

Fortunately, he found Dr. Atkinson and Dimitri there, with 
dog-teams. They immediately set out to the rescue, and 
brought Lieut. Evans and Lashly to safety. Evans rapidly 
recovered under Atkinson's care, and the effects of fresh pro- 
visions, and was invalided home in the Terra Nova on her 
second voyage. 

For this gallant deed, on their return to England Lashly and 
Crean were each awarded the Albert Medal. 

The Polar Party now consisted of Captain Scott, Dr. Wilson, 
Captain Gates, Lieut. Bowers and Petty Officer Evans. They 
proceeded south with one sledge, laden with camping equipment 
and provisions for over a month. 

Ever ready in appreciation and recognition of the qualities 
of his comrades, the Leader wrote : 

* Each is invaluable. It is quite impossible to speak too 
highly of my companions. . . . Wilson, first as doctor, ever 
on the look out to alleviate the small pains and troubles inci- 
dental to the work ; now as cook, quick, careful and dexterous, 
ever thinking of some expedient to help the camp life ; tough as 
steel on the traces, never wavering from start to finish.' 

* Evans, a great worker with a really remarkable head-piece. 
It is only now I realise how much has been due to him . . . 
what an invaluable assistant he has been.' 

* Little Bowers remains a marvel — he is thoroughly enjoying 
himself. . . . Nothing comes amiss to him, and no work is 
too hard. It is difficult to get him into the tent; he seems 
quite oblivious to the cold, and he lies coiled in his bag writing 
and working out sights long after the others are asleep.' 

* Oates had his invaluable period with the ponies ; now he 
is a foot-slogger and goes hard the whole time, does his share 
of the camp work, and stands the hardship as well as any of us. 
I would not like to be without him either.' 




LIEUT. EVANS SURVEYING WITH THE THEODOLITE USED BY CAPT. SCOTT TO 
LOCATE THE SOUTH POLE. 





PETTY OFFICER CREAN. MECHANIC LASHLY. 

The men who saved Lieut. Evans' life. 



276] 



FORESTALLED 277 

With confident hearts and buoyant spirits they pressed on. 
* What lots of things we think of on these monotonous 
marches! What castles one builds now hopefully that the 
Pole is ours,' wrote the Leader, as he reached Shackleton's 
' Furthest South ' on January 6th, 1912, Lat. 88° 23'— ninety- 
seven geographical miles from the goal. The next day the 
maximum height of the Plateau was reached — 10,570 feet 
above the Great Ice Barrier. Henceforward, there was a 
gradual decline of one thousand feet; but, owing to the bad 
surfaces and bad weather encountered, it took ten days to 
cover the remaining distance to the Pole. 

Up till now, no sign had been seen of the Norwegians; but 
Scott had not altogether banished the possibility that Amundsen 
might have preceded him. On January 15th he wrote: 

* It is wonderful to think that two long marches would land 
us at the Pole. ... It ought to be a certain thing now, 
and the only appalling possibility the sight of the Norwegian 
flag forestalling ours.' 

The next day, January 16th, Scott wrote : 

' The worst has happened, or nearly the worst. We marched 
well in the morning, and covered 7^ miles. Noon sight 
showed us in Lat. 89° 42 S., and we started ofif in high 
spirits in the afternoon, feeling that to-morrow would see 
us at our destination. About the second hour of the march 
Bowers' sharp ey€s detected what he thought was a cairn; he 
was uneasy about it, but argued that it must be a sastrugus* 
Half an hour later he detected a black speck ahead. Soon we 
knew that this could not be a natural snow feature. We 
marched on, found that it was a black flag tied to a sledge 
bearer; near-by the remains of a camp; sledge tracks and ski 
tracks going and coming and the clear trace of dogs' paws — 
many dogs. This told us the whole story. The Norwegians 
have forestalled us and are first at the Pole. It is a terrible 

* A sastrugus is a hard ridge of snow. 



278 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

disappointment, and I am very sorry for my loyal companions. 
Many thoughts come and much discussion have we had. 
To-morrow we must march on to the Pole, and then hasten 
home with all the speed we can compass. All the day-dreams 
must go ; it will be a wearisome return.' 

The Leader's simple words tell a story that should be 
perpetuated for England in the National Gallery. Few 
painters had ever a more dramatic theme. The setting, a vast 
and featureless plain of ice; the centre of interest an ominous 
black flag, contemplating which are five men in Polar clothing, 
dismayed but not disheartened; and the title of the picture 
* Forestalled.' That is all ; yet it would tell an epic tale. 

'It is a terrible disappointment, and I am very sorry 
for my loyal companions.' 

The greatness of the Leader shines out in that immortal 
sentence. In that tragic hour it was for his companions that 
he felt, not for himself and the blighting of his own hopes. 

On January 17th Scott wrote: 

* The Pole. Yes, but under very different circumstances 
from those we expected. We have had a horrible day — ^add to 
our disappointment a head wind, with a temperature of — 22°, 
and companions labouring on with cold feet and cold 
hands. . . .' 

* We started at 7.30, none of us having slept much after 
the shock of our discovery. . . . To-night little Bowers is 
laying himself out to get sights in terrible difficult circum- 
stances ; the wind is blowing hard, and there is a curious damp, 
cold feeling in the air which chills one to the bone in no 
time. . . . Great God! this is an awful place and terrible 
enough for us to have laboured to it without the reward of 
priority.' 

All the tremendous effort of those eleven weeks that had 
passed is felt in that one momentary, bitter cry to the Almighty. 




Photo ly Lieut. Bowers. 

Scott. Gates. Wilson. P.O. Evans 

AMUNDSEN'S TENT AT THE SOUTH POLE. 




SCOTT'S PARTY AT THE SOUTH POLE. 
Wilson (pulling the string), Scott, P.O. Evans, Oates, Bowers. 



279 



AT THE POLE 279 

It is the cry of a strong man out of whose heart hope is crushed. 
But in such a heart as Scott's it was human endeavour that 
mattered, not mere ambition to achieve. The crushing of a 
hope could not long depress such dauntless spirit as his; and 
the next day found him full of appreciation for his rival's 
successful work. 

On January 18th, he wrote: 

* Decided, after summing up all observations, that we were 
3.5 miles away from the Pole — one mile beyond it and 3 to 
the righit. More or less in this direction Bowers saw a 
cairn or tent. 

' We have just arrived at this tent, 2 miles from our camp, 
therefore about 1^ miles from the Pole. In the tent we find 
a record of five Norwegians having been here, as follows: 

Roald Amundsen 

Olav Olavson Bjaaland 

Hilmer Hanssen 

Sverre H. Hassel 

Oscar Wisting 

16 Dec. 1911. 

' The tent is fine — a small compact affair supported by a 
single bamboo. A note from Amundsen, which I keep, asks 
me to forward a letter to King Haakon ! ' 

'Left a note to say I had visited the tent with companions. 
Bowers photographing and Wilson sketching. . . . 

' We built a cairn, put up our slighted Union Jack, and 
photographed ourselves — mighty cold work all of it. . . . 

' There is no doubt that our predecessors have made 
thoroughly sure of their mark and fully carried out their 
programme. ... 

' We carried the Union Jack about three-quarters of a mile 



280 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

north with us and left it on a piece of stick as near as we 
could fix it.' * 

In the photographs which they took that day, it is magnifi- 
cently eloquent of the manner in which the explorers took the 
frustrating of their hopes, that one of the films shows four 
of the party laughing — obviously at some mishap to Bowers, 
just as he released the shutter, for the negative is blurred. 

As Scott now thought of the tremendous journey that lay 
before them, he wrote : 

* Well, we have turned our backs now on the goal of our 
ambition and must face our 800 miles of solid dragging — ^and 
good-bye to most of the day-dreams. . . . Now for the run 
home and a desperate struggle. I wonder if we can do it ! ' 

With such a colossal task before them; in the face of 
weather which he knew must inevitably become daily more 
severe, and without the incentive of being first at the Pole to 
cheer them, the Leader may well have feared that, though he 
knew their spirit would never fail them, their strength might 
be unequal to the call. 

The pages of Captain Scott's diary, which follow, contain 
an account of the most heroic and self-sacrificing struggle in 
the history of Polar exploration. 

* The Norwegian party reached the South Pole on December 14th, 
1911. On December 30th they crossed 87° S. northward bound. 
Scott's party crossed 87° S. southward bound on December 31st. 
About that time, therefore, the rival explorers passed each other, some 
100 miles apart. The courses of the two parties converged at the 
point where Scott found the black flag on January 16th. 

Amundsen's party left the Pole on December 17th, with 16 dogs, 
temperature — 2° F. They arrived at their base on the Bay of Whales 
on January 25th, 1912, with 11 dogs, having experienced remarkably 
fine weather and comparative immunity from storms on both outward 
and homeward journeys. They covered the 770 miles in 39 days, an 
average of about 20 miles per day. Amundsen's route was shorter 
than Scott's by 60 to 80 miles each way. 



SCOTT S DEVOTION TO PURPOSE 281 

By kind permission of the publishers of * Scott's Last 
Expedition,' I am privileged to make a number of extracts from 
my late Chief's Journal; and I would here beg my readers to 
bear in mind that notwithstanding the infinite striving of each 
day — striving for dear life itself — and the gradual weakening 
of the party, the Leader yet found time each night to record 
the day's doings fidly. Knowing, as we do, that this was only 
accomplished under appalling conditions of hardship, and after 
unprecedented putting forth of long-continued effort, Captain 
Scott's Journal must be regarded as one of the most remarkable 
attestations of devotion to purpose and duty in the history of 
our race. It is all the more remarkable, when we consider 
the simple beauty of the language used ; and yet still more so, 
when we remember that, after all, this was only a diary — mere 
notes from which the Leader had intended, later, to write his 
book in comfort at home. Taking all the circumstances under 
which it was produced into consideration, and the literary 
quality of the result, it is doubtful if in all the world there is 
any more moving human document that this stirring and 
inspiring record of a brave but hopeless fight against over- 
whelming odds. 

From the time of leaving the Pole, Scott seems to have 
been oppressed with a feeling of anxiety : 

' It will be an anxious time until Three Degree Depot is 
reached (over 150 miles away). I'm afraid the return journey 
is going to be dreadfully tiring and monotonous,' he wrote. 

Bad weather, bad travelling surfaces, and low zero tempera- 
tures with icy winds were encountered from the outset of the 
return journey. 

' Gates is feeling the cold and fatigue more than most of us,' 
wrote Scott on January 21st; and on the 23rd: 

'Wilson suddenly discovered that Evans' nose was frost- 
bitten — it was white and hard. There is no doubt Evans is a 
good deal run down — his fingers are badly blistered and his nose 
rather seriously congested with frequent frostbites. He is 
very much annoyed with himself, which is not a good sign. 



282 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

I think Wilson, Bowers and I are as fit as possible under the 
circumstances. Oates gets cold feet.' 

On January 24th, the first note of serious apprehension 
was struck. Scott wrote: 

' This is the second full gale since we left the Pole. I don't 
like the look of it. Is the weather breaking up? If so, God 
help us, with the tremendous journey and scanty food.' 

It is as though the Leader heard the approaching foot- 
falls of Death — and Death was not far distant. 

Oates now began to suffer much with his feet, and Evans* 
fingers and nose were in a very bad state. Wilson suffered 
tortures from snow-blindness. He had the misfortune also 
to strain a tendon in his leg a few days later ; and Evans * dis- 
lodged two fingers-nails ' the same evening. On February 1st, 
they were very bad, and the blisters burst ; the next day Scott 
had a bad fall. He wrote : 

'All went well till ... on a very slippery surface I came 
an awful " purler " on my shoulder. It is horribly sore to-night 
and another sick person added to our tent — three out of five 
injured, and the most troublesome surfaces to come. We shall 
be lucky if we get through without serious injury. Wilson's 
leg is better; but might easily get bad again, and Evans' 
fingers.' 

Petty Officer Evans had a bad fall on February 4th, and 
became * dull and incapable ' from the effects of concussion. 
The next day Scott wrote: 

'Evans is our chief anxiety now; his cuts and wounds 
suppurate, his nose looks very bad, and altogether he shows 
considerable signs of being played out. ... He is going 
steadily downhill.' 

Since leaving the Pole, the party had, up to now, been 
traversing the Plateau. On February 7th, the descent of the 
Beardmore Glacier was commenced. 



A DESPERATE SITUATION 288 

To the lasting glory of his name, notwithstanding the plight 
of the party, Dr. Wilson kept a steady look-out for geological 
specimens and fossils in the morainic matter passed, and 
collected many. In all 35 lbs. of specimens were gathered, 
and these they carried to the last. This devotion to science 
may well have meant the difference between life and death 
to them. 

On February 11th, they got into a terrible place, the ice being 
broken up by pressure, and badly crevassed. In the uncertain 
light they were utterly at a loss which way to steer. 
Scott wrote : 

' There were times when it seemed almost impossible to find 
a way out of the awful turmoil in which we found ourselves. 
At length, arguing that there must be a way out on our left, 
we plunged in that direction. It got worse, harder, more icy 
and crevassed. . . . We had grown desperate. We won 
through at 10 p.m. and I write after 12 hours on the march.' 

February 12th: 

"... By a fatal chance we kept too far to the left, and 
then we struck uphill and, tired and despondent, arrived in a 
horrid maze of crevasses and fissures. Divided counsels caused 
our course to be erratic after this, and finally, at 9 p.m. we 
landed in the worst place of all. After discussion we decided 
to camp, and here we are, after a very short supper, and one 
meal only remaining in the food bag; the depot is doubtful in 
locality. We must get there to-morrow. Meanwhile we are 
cheerful with an effort. It's a tight place, but luckily we've 
been well fed up to the present. Pray God we have fine 
weather to-morrow.' 

February 13th: 

' Evans raised our hopes with a shout of " depot ahead," but 
it proved to be a shadow on the ice. Then suddenly Wilson 
saw the actual depot flag. It was an immense relief, and we 
were soon in possession of our 3^^ days' food. The relief to 



284 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

all is inexpressible; needless to say, we camped and had a 
meal. . . . Yesterday was the worst experience of the trip 
and gave a horrid feeling of insecurity. In future food must 
be worked so that we do not run so short if the weather fails 
us. We mustn't get into a hole like this again. . . . Bowers 
has had a very bad attack of snow-blindness, and Wilson 
another almost as bad. Evans has no power to assist with 
camping work.* 

February 14th: 

* Wilson's leg still troubles him and he doesn't like to trust 
himself on ski ; but the worst case is Evans, who is giving us 
serious anxiety. This morning he suddenly disclosed a huge 
blister on his foot. . . . Sometimes I fear he is going from 
bad to worse.' 

February 16th: 

* Evans has nearly broken down in brain, we think. He is 
absolutely changed from his normal self-reliant self.' 

February 17th, Scott wrote: 

* A very terrible day. Evans looked a little better after a 
good sleep, and declared, as he always did, that he was quite 
well. He started in his place on the traces, but half-an-hour 
later worked his ski shoes adrift, and had to leave the sledge. 
... I cautioned him to come on as quickly as he could, and 
he answered cheerfully as I thought. We had to push on, and 
the remainder of us were forced to pull very hard, sweating 
heavily 

* After lunch, and Evans still not appearing, we looked out. 
to see him still afar off. By this time we were alarmed, and 
all four started back on ski. I was first to reach the poor man, 
and shocked at his appearance; he was on his knees with 
clothing disarranged, hands uncovered and frostbitten, and a 
wild look in his eyes. Asked what was the matter, he replied 
with a slow speech that he didn't know, but thought he must 
have fainted. We got him on his feet, but after two or three 




CAPT. DATES. 



PETTY OFFICER EVANS. 








i 


a^^^^^B j^^H. ^^^H "' ) 



DR. WILSON. 



LIEUT. BOWERS. 



284] 



i! 



IP 



DEATH OF PETTY OFFICER EVANS 285 

steps he sank down again. He showed every sign of complete 
collapse. Wilson, Bowers and I went back for the sledge, 
whilst Gates remained with him. When we returned he was 
practically unconscious, and when we got him into the tent 
quite comatose. He died quietly at 12.30 a.m. ... It is a 
terrible thing to lose a companion in this way, but calm 
reflection shows that there could not have been a better ending 
to the terrible anxieties of the past week. Discussion of the 
situation at lunch yesterday shows us what a desperate pass we 
were in with a sick man on our hands at such a distance from 
home. . . . Providence mercifully removed him at this 
critical moment. . . . We did not leave him until two hours 
after his death.' 

' Taff ' Evans had been regarded as the ' Strong Man ' of 
the party; but the blasting of his beloved Chief's ambition, to 
be the first to reach the $outh Pole, was a blow from which 
the devoted man never recovered. His downfall began to 
date from that time: but he served his country with all his 
strength to the last hour of his life. 

At Shambles Camp, renewed strength was imparted to the 
surviving members of the party by a plentiful meal of the horse- 
flesh depoted there; and supplies of the fresh meat were 
carried forward. 

The grim footfalls, which had overtaken them, had now 
fallen to the rear again; but the Leader seemed ever to hear 
them. On February 20th he wrote : 

* Pray God, we get better travelling as we are not so fit as 
we were.' 

And on February 27th : 

* Pray God, we have no further set-backs, but there is a 
horrid element of doubt.' 

The cold continued intense, ranging from sixty to eighty 
degrees of frost, and the surface bad beyond their worst fears. 



286 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

These things delayed thera woefully, and the daily marches 
did not average more than five or six miles; whereas a 
minimum of nine had been allowed for — ^whilst it had been 
hoped that a minimum of thirteen miles per day might be 
accomplished. Delay meant further shortage of food and 
oil fuel. 

The anxiety and terrific strain on their strength was 
beginning too surely to tell. On March 3rd Captain Scott 
wrote : 

* God help us, we can't keep up this pulling, that is certain. 
Amongst ourselves we are unendingly cheerful, but what each 
feels in his heart I can only guess.' 

March 4th : 

' We are in a very tight place indeed, but none of us feels 
despondent yet, or at least we preserve every semblance of good 
cheer, but one's heart sinks as the sledge stops dead at some 
sastrugi. ... I don't know what I should do if Wilson and 
Bowers weren't so determinedly cheerful over things.' 

We can but surmise what sufferings and misgivings lay 
behind the masks with which they concealed their feelings. 

On March 5th, Scott wrote : 

* Oates' feet are in a wretched condition. One swelled up 
tremendously last night and he is very lame this morning. . . . 
Marched for five hours this morning, covering about 5^ 
miles. . . . The poor Soldier nearly done. It is pathetic 
enough because we can do nothing for him; more hot food 
might do a little, but only a little, I fear. We none of us 
expected these terribly low temperatures. . . . Wilson is 
feeling them most; mainly, I fear, from his self-sacrificing 
devotion in doctoring Oates' feet.' 

March 6th : 

' Things have been awful. . . . Poor Oates is unable to 
pull. . . . He is wonderfully plucky, as his feet must be giving 



BRAVERY OF CAPTAIN GATES 287 

him great pain. He makes no complaint. If we were all fit, I 
should have hopes of getting through; but the poor Soldier has 
become a terrible hindrance, though he does his utmost and 
suffers much. . . . One of his feet very bad this morning; 
he is wonderfully brave. We still talk of what we will do 
together at home.' 

The grim shadow was fast drawing near once more. 
Scott saw it, and wrote on March 7th: 

* One feels that for poor Oates the crisis is near.' 

March 8th : 

* Wilson's feet giving trouble now, but mainly because he 
gives so much help to others. . . . God help us indeed.' 

On March 10th, the Leader wrote : 

* Oates' foot worse. He has rare pluck and must know 
that he can never get through. He asked Wilson if he had 
a chance this morning, and of course Bill had to say he didn't 
know. In point of fact he has none. Apart from him, if 
he went under now, I doubt whether we could get through. 
With great care we might have a dog's chance, but no more. 
The weather conditions are awful. At the same time of course 
poor Titus is the greatest handicap. Poor chap! it is too 
pathetic to watch him; one cannot but try to cheer him up.' 

March 11th: 

' Oates is very near the end. What he will do, God only 
knows. He is a brave, fine fellow, and understands the 
situation. He asked us for advice. Nothing could be done 
but to urge him to march as long as he could.' 

March 12th: 

' The surface remains awful, the cold intense, and our 
physical condition running down. God help us 1 Not a breath 
of favourable wind for more than a week.' 



288 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

March 14th: 

* It must be near the end, but a pretty merciful end. Poor 
Gates again got it in the foot. I shudder to think what it will 
be like to-morrow. It is only with greatest pains rest of us 
keep oif frostbites. Truly awful outside the tent. Must fight 
it out to the last biscuit, but can't reduce rations.' 

On March 16th, Oates could go no further, and Scott wrote : 

* At lunch, the day before yesterday, poor Titus Oates said 
he couldn't go on; he proposed we should leave him in his 
sleeping-bag. That we could not do, and we induced him to 
come on, on the afternoon march. In spite of its awful nature 
for him, he struggled on and we made a few miles. At night 
he was worse, and we knew that the end had come. He did 
not — would not — give up hope to the very end. He slept 
through the night, hoping not to wake, but he woke in the 
morning. It was blowing a blizzard. He said : " I am just 
going outside, and may be some time." He went out into the 
blizzard, and we have not seen him since. . . . We knew 
that poor Oates was walking to his death, but though we tried 
to dissuade him, we knew that it was the act of a brave man 
and an English gentleman. We all hope to meet the end with 
a similar spirit, and assuredly the end is not far.' 

I recall very clearly a memorable conversation that Oates 
had with Nelson and me one evening in my dark-room, during 
the winter of 1911. The point was raised as to what a man 
should do if he were to break down on the Polar journey, 
thereby becoming a burden to others. Oates unhesitatingly 
and emphatically expressed the opinion that there was only 
one possible course — self-sacrifice. He thought that a pistol 
should be carried, and that * If anyone breaks down he should 
have the privilege of using it.' 

We both agreed with this ; but little did we think that within 
six months, one of us, and that one Oates himself, would be 
put to the test. Though no pistol was carried, when the time 
came for Oates to live up to his words, he was not found 



SELF-SACRIFICE SUBLIME 289 

wanting. But his was not the act of one goaded by suffering 
into a last distracted, frenzied impulse. It was the deliberate 
act of a man who had thought out his duty to his companions 
beforehand, and in cold blood. There can be no question about 
the quality of Oates' sacrifice. It was sublime. 

They pitched their 60th camp from the Pole on March 19th, 
eleven miles from a depot of food and fuel. That day a 
blizzard began, which, as the meteorological records at winter- 
quarters show, lasted for ten days. For those three dauntless 
souls who had stuck to their sick companions to the last, the 
end had come. 

Scott wrote: 
March 19th: 

' We camped with difficulty last night and were dreadfully 
cold till after our supper of cold pemmican and biscuit, and 
half a pannikin of cocoa cooked over the spirit. Then, 
contrary to expectation, we got warm and all slept well. 
To-day we started in the usual dragging manner. Sledge 
dreadfully heavy. We are 15^ miles from the depot and 
ought to get there in three days. What progress ! We have 
two days' food but barely a day's fuel. All our feet are getting 
bad — Wilson's best, my right foot worst, left all right. There 
is no chance to nurse one's feet till we can get hot food into us. 
Amputation is the least I can hope for now, but will the trouble 
spread? Thaf is the serious question. The weather doesn't 
give us a chance — the wind from N. to N.W. and — 40° 
temp, to-day.' 

March 21st (Wednesday) : 

* Got within 1 1 miles of depot Monday night ; had to lay up 
all yesterday in severe blizzard. To-day forlorn hope, Wilson 
and Bowers going to depot for fuel.' 

March 22nd : 

* Blizzard bad as ever — Wilson and Bowers unable to start 
— to-morrow last chance — no fuel and only one or two rations 
of food left — must be near the end. Have decided it shall be 

19 



290 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

natural — we shall march for the depot with or without our 
effects and die in our tracks.' 

On Thursday, March 29th, the Leader made the final entry 
in his Journal : 

* Since the 21st, we have had a continuous gale .from W.S.W. 
and S.W. We had fuel to make two cups of tea apiece and 
bare food for two days on the 20th. Every day we have been 
ready to start for our depot 1 1 miles away, but outside the door 
of the tent it remains a scene of whirling drift. I do not think 
we can hope for any better things now. We shall stick it 
out to the end, but we are getting weaker, of course, and the 
end cannot be far. 

' It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more. 

R. Scott. 

* For God's sake look after our people.' 

Owing to the terrific weather, and the fall of winter and 
consequent darkness, it was not until the following spring 
(October 29th, 1912), that a Search Party, in command of 
Surgeon Atkinson, was able to set out, under the guidance of 
Mr. C. S. Wright, who was a skilful navigator. By the 
evening of November 11th, they had covered the 140 miles to 
One Ton Depot; and the next day, having travelled 11 miles 
further, they discovered the tent. 

* Wilson and Bowers were found in the attitude of sleep, 
their sleeping-bags closed over their heads as they would 
naturally close them. Scott died later. He had thrown back 
the flaps of his sleeping-bag and opened his coat. The little 
wallet containing the three note-books was under his shoulders 
and his arm thrown across Wilson. So, they were found — 
eight months later.' 

Beside the note-books were the little camera, and two rolls 
of film. In these films there were latent, amongst others, 
the three photographs reproduced herein which show the 




CAPTAIN SCOTT 



290] 



tte 



THE LEADER'S LAST MESSAGE 291 

explorers at the South Pole — probably the most tragically 
interesting photographs in the world. 

They were taken with a quarter-plate film camera; and, in 
the case of the groups, the shutter was released by a long thread, 
so that all might appear in the picture. Dr. Wilson can be 
seen pulling this thread in one of the groups, and Lieut. Bowers 
in the other. The films were nearly two years old at the time 
they were exposed at the South Pole. For eight months those 
two rolls of film lay on the snow — beside the dead bodies of 
three of the five explorers whose images were hidden therein — 
until they were found by the Search Party. Later, they were 
developed by Debenham in the Plut at Cape Evans. It seems 
almost incredible that they should have yielded excellent 
negatives. 

• • • • • • 

In one of the note-books. Captain Scott had written these 
lines : 

MESSAGE TO PUBLIC 

The causes of the disaster are not due to faulty organisation, 
but to misfortune in all risks which had to be undertaken. 

1. The loss of Pony transport in March 1911 obliged us to 
start later than I had intended, and obliged the limits of stuff 
transported to be narrowed. 

2. The weather throughout the outward journey, and 
especially the heavy gales in 83° S., stopped us. 

3. The soft snow in lower reaches of glacier again reduced 

pace. 

We fought these untoward events with a will and conquered, 
but it cut into our provision reserve. 

Every detail of our food supplies, clothing and depots made 
on the interior ice-sheet and over that long stretch of 700 miles 
to the Pole and back, worked out to perfection. The advance 
party would have returned to the glacier in fine form and with 
surplus of food, but for the astonishing failure of the man 
whom we had least expected to fail. Edgar Evans was thought 
the strongest man of the party. 

The Beardmore Glacier is not difficult in fine weather, but 



292 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

on our return we did not get a single completely fine day; this 
with a sick companion enormously increased our anxieties. 

As I have said elsewhere, we got into frightfully rough ice 
and Edgar Evans received a concussion of the brain — ^he died 
a natural death, but left us a shaken party with the season 
unduly advanced. 

But all the facts above enumerated were as nothing to the sur- 
prise which awaited us on the Barrier. I maintain that our ar- 
rangements for returning were quite adequate, and that no one in 
the world would have expected the temperatures and surfaces 
which we encountered at this time of the year. On the summit 
in lat. 85° 86° we had -20°,, -30°. On the Barrier in 
lat. 82°, 10,000 feet lower, we had —30° in the day, 
— 47° at night pretty regularly, with continuous head wind 
during our day marches. It is clear that these circumstances 
come on very suddenly, and our wreck is certainly due to this 
sudden advent of severe weather, which does not seem to have 
any satisfactory cause. 

I do not think human beings ever came through such a month 
as we have come through, and we should have got through in 
spite of the weather but for the sickening of a second 
companion, Captain Oates, and a shortage of fuel in our depots 
for which I cannot account, and finally, but for the storm which 
has fallen on us within 1 1 miles of the depot at which we hoped 
to secure our final supphes. 

Surely misfortune could scarcely have exceeded this last 
blow. We arrived within 1 1 miles of our old One Ton Camp 
with fuel for one last meal and food for two days. For four 
days we have been unable to leave the tent — the gale howling 
about us. 

We are weak, writing is difficult, but for my own sake I do 
not regret this journey, which has shown that Englishmen can 
endure hardships, help one another, and meet death with as 
great a fortitude as ever in the past. 

We took risks, we knew we took them; things have come 
out against us, and therefore we have no cause for complaint, 
but bow to the will of Providence, determined still to do our 



^^/^ i^n^^f^y^^tn^ m*^^ i4rnU4 Atv-C 

JKc^ ItW^ H-/^ r-r>»4, /6*J ^Wm^ *^i.w^- 



THE LEADER'S LAST WRITTEN WORDS. 




wHIHiBHHi^ ^K^si^^^S^^^BH^H^ 1^ V/f .vfi i 



THE LAST REST. 
The grave of Scott, Wilson, and Bowers. 



[293 



*HAD WE LIVED ' 298 

best to the last. But if we have been willing to give our lives 
to this enterprise, which is for the honour of our country, I 
appeal to our countrymen to see that those who depend on us 
are properly cared for. 

Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardi- 
hood, endurance, and courage of my companions which would 
have stirred the heart of every Englishman. These rough 
notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale, but surely, surely, 
a great rich country like ours will see that those who are 
dependent on us are properly provided for. 

R. Scott. 

Over their bodies a great cairn of ice was raised, surmounted 
by a cross, made from ski ; and a sledge was stood on end in a 
smaller cairn, near-by, to be an additional mark. 

A search was made for Captain Oates' body, but it was never 
found. ' The kindly snow had covered his body, giving it a 
fitting burial.' A cross was placed on the scene of the search, 
with the inscription : 

' Hereabouts Died a Very Gallant Gentleman, Captain 
L. E. G. Oates, of the Inniskilling Dragoons.' 

Later, at Hut Point, a cross was erected to the memory of 
Captain Scott, Dr. Wilson, Captain Oates, Lieutenant Bowers, 
and Petty Officer Evans, on which this line from Tennyson's 
' Ulysses ' was carved — than which no man had ever a nobler 
epitaph : 

' To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.' 



THE END OF THE EXPEDITION 

I HAVE told my story; and it only remains for me to add a 
few words about the end of the Expedition. 

Taylor left for Australia on the same day that we landed in 
New Zealand; Day and Meares elected to return to England 
via Rio Janeiro; whilst Simpson and I went home by way of 
Sydney and the Suez Canal. Lieut. Evans stayed awhile in 
New Zealand to recover his health before proceeding home. 

On arrival in London, I found a wholly groundless belief 
current that there had been a ' race ' to the Pole. I, therefore, 
addressed a letter to * The Times,' which was published, and 
from which I quote the following extracts. At that time it 
was, of course, not known that a disaster had happened. 

* The popular idea that there has been a race to the South 
Pole is an error. Captain Scott has not been racing, nor has 
he been engaged in a mere * dash to the Pole.' He is leading 
a great scientific expedition — perhaps the greatest ever sent 
out from any land — and the reaching of the South Pole was 
but one part of the extensive programme laid out. To race 
would have been to jeopardise the success of the main objects 
of the enterprise, and Captain Scott would not allow the 
'presence of a rival in the field to move him from the course 
which he considered best and wisest. 

* Within four months of our departure from New Zealand 
he had lost nine ponies out of nineteen, nearly half the total 
transport on which he was relying. It would be impossible to 
overstate the seriousness of this loss. Had any more ponies 
succumbed, the main objects of the Expedition could not have 
been achieved, as success was entirely dependent on the transport 
animals. It was due to this misfortune that Captain Scott 

294 



THE END OF THE EXPEDITION 295 

did not start on the Pole journey till November 1st, 1911. 
His original plans provided for leaving his base on October 
1st; but October is a very cold and tempestuous month, and 
to have exposed the surviving transport animals to the 
additional hardships such weather entailed, would have involved 
too grave a risk. He, therefore, reluctantly postponed the start 
a month. That month perhaps lost for Scott the honour of 
being first at the South Pole. But for this delay it is con- 
ceivable that the rival explorers might even have met at the 
goal of their hopes. 

' Captain Scott will be heartiest of all in congratulating 
Amundsen on his splendid achievement. More than any 
other man can he appreciate what it means to press such an 
enterprise to success. He himself would have scorned 
October's hardships — for that is a word I have never heard 
him use — but he would not allow any unnecessary exposure 
of the animals (he was dependent on) to mar his chances of 
success. Failure to get to the Pole this year would have 
meant the ruin of all his next year's plans. He told me he 
was more interested in the work mapped out for the second 
season, and considered it of greater geographical importance 
than reaching the Pole. 

* The work of the Expedition in each scientific department 
has yielded results equalling, if not exceeding the most 
sanguine hopes. There is no branch of the enterprise that 
has not justified the final words of Captain Scott's despatch: 
" I am staying in the Antarctic for another year in order to 
continue and complete my work." ' 

In October, 1912, Evans — who had been promoted to the 
rank of Commander — having recovered his health, left London 
for New Zealand, to join the Terra Nova for her third voyage 
to the Antarctic to bring the Expedition home. 

In December, as I was much run down with the strain of 
my work in the South, I went to Switzerland for a few 
weeks' rest. In February, 1913, when at Wengen, I received 
a cablegram from the Central News, stating : ' Captain Scott 



296 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

and entire Polar Party perished whilst returning from the 
South Pole.' 

Completely dazed by such terrible and wholly unexpected 
news, I could not believe it, and cabled for confirmation. A 
few hours later I received a further wire : * Regret to state 
information is authentic. Entire Polar Party perished.' 

This shocking news struck deep into the heart of every 
civilised nation. Then, as the details of the disaster and the 
dead Leader's story of the tragedy became known, the whole 
Empire mourned, whilst priding itself that these undaunted 
adventurers, who in death had found immortal fame, were 
British. 

I returned to London immediately, and was present at the 
Memorial Service at St. Paul's Cathedral, where, later, a 
tablet was erected to the Memory of Captain Scott and his 
four comrades who had reached the Pole. 

After the return of the Expedition, in July, 1913, King 
George presented each member of the Staff with a silver Polar 
medal, and each of the men with a bronze replica. Each of 
the Staff also received a silver medal from the Royal Geo- 
graphical Society * For Polar Exploration.' The honour of 
C.B. had previously been conferred upon Commander Evans, 
as official head of the survivors of the Expedition; all other 
naval officers received promotion, and Petty Officer Crean and 
mechanic Lashly were awarded the Albert medal for their 
gallantry in saving Commander Evans' life. 

The public generously responded to the appeal to meet the 
obligations of the enterprise, and contributed £75,000 to a 
Fund raised for that purpose. Some thousands of pounds 
were added to this from the proceeds of the exhibition of the 
kinematograph films. With the Government pensions in 
addition, Captain Scott's dying hope — that *a great rich 
country like ours will see that those who are dependent upon 
us are properly provided for ' — was munificently realised ; and 
an ample sum was allocated for the publication of the scientific 
results. 

A statue of Captain Scott was presented by the Officers of 




STATUE OF CAPTAIN SCOTT IN LONDON. 



295] 



THE END OF THE EXPEDITION 297 

the Fleet to London. This monument — which stands in 
Waterloo Place, and appropriately faces the statue of Sir John 
Franklin, who completed the discovery of the North West 
Passage — is not only one of London's latest and most virile 
works of art; but it is unique, in that it is the work of the 
great explorer's talented widow. Lady Scott. 

In view of the tragic ending to the enterprise, I felt it more 
than ever incumbent upon me, as the holder of the lecturing 
rights, to conform to the wishes my late Chief had expressed 
to me, by carrying out my original plans. A beautiful 
and complete series of the photographs and films of 
the adventure, and of the Nature life of the South, was 
therefore arranged, and to these I lectured at a London Hall 
for ten months in 1914, until the outbreak of the great war 
ended what had been a highly successful beginning to a novel 
feature in the entertainment world. 

In May, 1914, I had the honour to receive the Royal 
Command to show my kinematograph record, and tell the 
story of the Scott Expedition, at Buckingham Palace, before 
Their Majesties the King and Queen, the Royal Family, the 
King and Queen of Denmark, and several hundred guests. 
On that occasion. His Majesty King George expressed to me 
the hope that it might be possible for every British boy to 
see the pictures — as the story of the Scott Expedition could 
not be known too widely among the youth of the nation, for 
it would help to promote the spirit of adventure that had 
made the Empire. 

In 1915, in response to an appeal from the Front, I gave 
sets of the films for the benefit of our soldiers in France, and 
they were shown to more than 100,000 officers and men of 
the British Army. The following is an extract from one of 
the letters received from the Rev. F. I. Anderson, Senior 
Chaplain to the Forces : 

' I cannot tell you what a tremendous delight your films are 
to thousands of our troops. The splendid story of Captain 
Scott is just the thing to cheer and encourage out here. . . . 



298 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

The thrilling story of Gates' self-sacrifice, to try and give his 
friends a chance of " getting through," is one that appeals so 
at the present time. The intensity of its appeal is realised by 
the subdued hush and quiet that pervades the massed audience 
of troops while it is being told. We all feel we have inherited 
from Gates and his comrades a legacy and heritage of inestim- 
able value in seeing through our present work. We all thank 
you with very grateful hearts.' 

The kinematograph, properly applied, is the greatest educa- 
tional contrivance ever conceived by the genius of man. In it 
the art of photography finds its highest mission. Believing, as 
I do, that the moving-picture is one of the most potent moral 
influences of the time, and that it is destined to play a wide 
and ever-increasing part in education in the future, I feel that 
the pictorial record of an adventure which * cheered and 
encouraged ' British soldiers in the greatest crisis in the history 
of the Empire can have none other than an uplifting effect on 
British boys. I beheve it will have a good effect on boys and 
girls, and men and women too, the wide world over, 

A high official in the Department of Education, Washing- 
ton, U.S.A., wrote: 

* The pictures and story of this great example of courage, 
endurance, and perfect fidelity to high ideals are of great 
help in the development of the truly heroic in the rising 
generation. I wish every boy and young man in this city and 
throughout the country could see these pictures and hear their 
story. We need in the future all the Captain Scotts we can 
develop, and this story and these pictures will help to develop 
them.' 

Still more, in the future, shall we need all the Captain 
Scotts we can develop in England; and we shall need all the 
sinewy * Uncle Bills ' and hardy * Birdies,' and gallant 
gentlemen like * Titus,' and strong men like Petty Gfficer 
Evans, too. 



THE END OF THE EXPEDITION 299 

Twenty, fifty, a hundred, five hundred years hence, the 
story of the Immortal Five who perished after conquering the 
South Pole will inspire our youth just as it does to-day — 
ten years after. 

It was my privilege to be the producer of the kinematograph 
record of that great adventure — which is now of priceless 
historical value — and it is my intention during my lifetime to 
arrange for its exhibition from time to time, to assist in per- 
petuating the story of my late Chief and comrades of glorious 
memory. 

H. G. PONTING. 



EPILOGUE 

' What is the motive for such perilous work as Polar 
Exploration, and, after all, whom does it benefit?' 

To this question, so often asked, perhaps no better reply can 
be made than to quote the words spoken by the Rt. Hon. 
A. J. Balfour, in 1916, when he unveiled the statue of Captain 
Scott, which was presented by Officers of thfe Navy to 
London. On that occasion the ex-First Lord of the Admiralty 
said : 

' It is no bad thing, when the British Fleet is supporting 
the whole of the Entente Powers in their efforts, that we should 
remember that Peace hath her victories no less renowned than 
War. What the Fleet has done for the safety of these shores, 
the greatness of this Empire and for Freedom throughout the 
world is common knowledge; but we are sometimes apt to 
forget how much it has done in the unwarlike, yet most 
dangerous work of exploration, of wresting from Nature her 
jealous secrets.' 

To wrest from Nature her jealous secrets was the motive 
for Captain Scott's journey to the South Pole — a kindred 
aspiration to that which urges the ever deeper researches of 
the scientist into the products of the earth, the elements and 
the mysteries of the universe. Scientist and explorer alike, 
their one great end in view is to benefit humanity by adding to 
our sum of knowledge. What greater aim in life than this? 

' We have been willing to give our lives to this enter- 
prise, which is for the honour of our country.* 

Let these immortal words, written whilst Death stood at 

300 



EPILOGUE 801 

his elbow, be Captain Scott's answer to those who ask 
' Whom does it benefit ? ' 



CAPTAIN R. F. SCOTT, R.N., C.V.O. 

Captain Robert Falcon Scott, though of Scots descent, was 
a Devonshire man. Born at Outlands, near Devonport, on 
June 6th, 1868, he inherited a love of salt water from the 
seafaring stock of which he sprang. At a very- early age the 
sea was chosen by his parents for his profession. He began 
his education at Foster's Naval Preparatory School at 
Stubbington, near Fareham, in Hampshire. At the age of 
fourteen he entered the Britannia Training-ship, and served 
subsequently in various vessels of the Navy. 

It was in 1899, whilst serving as First Lieutenant in 
H.M.S. Majestic, that Antarctic exploration first attracted his 
attention, through an accidental meeting with Sir Clements 
Markham, the Commodore of the Training Squadron, who 
informed him that a project for sending a Naval expedition 
to the Antarctic was under discussion by the Admiralty. Scott 
at once applied for the leadership of the enterprise, and in 
due course was appointed to command it. 

This, the Discovery Expedition, 1901-4, resulted in most 
valuable contributions to our knowledge of the Antarctic 
Continent. It placed some hundred of miles of new coast line 
on the map, and the unknown South was penetrated to 
Lat. 82° 17' S., about five hundred miles from the South 
Pole, an advance of some three hundred miles on Sir James 
Ross's record. 

On the return of the Expedition Commander Scott was pro- 
moted to a Captaincy in the Navy, and he was made a Com- 
mander of the Royal Victorian Order by King Edward VII. 

In August, 1906, he returned to sea duty, and in 1908 he 
became Flag Captain of H.M.S. Bulwark. In September, 
1908, he married Miss Kathleen Bruce, daughter of Canon 
Lloyd Bruce, at Hampton Court Chapel. In March, 1909, 
he went to the Admiralty as Naval Assistant to the Second 



302 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

Sea Lord, and in September the same year his only child, 
Peter Markham Scott, was born. 

Ever since the Discovery Expedition, it had been the dearest 
hope of Scott's life to return to the Far South, to continue 
his scientific researches and complete the work of exploring 
the frozen continent. With this object in view, at 
the end of 1909 he therefore resigned his post at the 
Admiralty to prepare for his second voyage to the Antarctic 
— the successful attempt to reach the South Pole, on the return 
journey from which he and four comrades perished on the 
Great Ice Barrier. 

Scott was a great reader and lover of good literature; and 
his books ' The Voyage of the Discovery,' and ' Scott's Last 
Expedition ' — the diary of the great adventure to which he 
gave his life — have demonstrated his ability as a writer. 
There is probably nothing more soul-stirring in all our 
literature than the closing pages of Scott's Journal, and 
his ' Message to the Public,' which the great explorer wrote 
whilst death was staring full into his eyes. They should be 
taught in every school, and committed to memory by every 
British boy, for it should be the resolve of every true English- 
man ' to meet the end with a similar spirit.' 

A few days before leaving England for the Antarctic, 
Captain Scott said to a friend, ' I cannot imagine a finer death 
than that of a man who, having attained the object which he 
sought, dies rejoicing in his achievement.' 

The story of how the Leader of the Expedition attained his 
ideal is now a proud heritage of his race. 

DOCTOR E. A. WILSON 

Dr. Edward Adrian Wilson, the Chief of the Scientific 
Staff of the Expedition, was the son of Dr. Edward Wilson 
of-Westall, Cheltenham, and was born there in 1872. He 
was educated at Cheltenham College, and took his degree at 
Cambridge. A medical man by profession, he was also a 
well-known naturalist, and one of the most eminent Polar 
zoologists of his day. He had been a member of the Discovery 



EPILOGUE 303 

Expedition under Captain Scott ; and for several years previous 
to joining the present enterprise was engaged on the Grouse 
Commission, investigating the disease which was rapidly 
devastating the game on our moors. The trouble was traced to 
a parasite m the heather, and methods were suggested for exter- 
minating it which were put to the test with happy results. 

Dr. Wilson s contributions to the literature ot zoology and 
ornithology were many, varied and of great value. His death 
was an irreparable loss to science, for his knowledge of 
Antarctic fauna, gained by intimate study of the creatures 
that he so dearly loved, in their native haunts, was probably 
greater than that of anyone else of his time. He was an 
artist of much ability, and did fine work in recording in 
colour the scenes amidst which he and his fellow explorers 
lived in the South. Cool and courageous, nothing could dismay 
him, and even the Leader's love of Polar exploration was no 
greater than that of his Chief of the Scientific Staff. His 
never-ceasing energy was conspicuous for the valuable uses to 
which he applied it; and the amiability of his disposition was 
second only to his learning and the quality of his logic. 

* Uncle Bill ' now sleeps for ever amid the snows of the Great 
White South, with the same kindly smile upon his features that 
his comrades knew so well in life — and loved him for it. 

At the last, Captain Scott wrote of him : ' He died, as he 
lived, a brave, true man — the best of comrades and staunchest 
of friends.' 

CAPTAIN L. E. G. GATES 

Captain Lawrence Edward Grace Gates was in charge of 
the Siberian ponies. He was born on March 17th, 1880, at 
Gestingthorpe Hall, near Halstead, Essex. Both his father 
and uncle had done much travelling in wild parts of the earth, 
and Gates therefore inherited to the full the spirit of adventure. 

He was educated at Eton, and, joining the 6th ' Innis- 
killing ' Dragoons in 1900, fought with his regiment in the 
South African War. In the following year he was in charge 
of a patrol in an attack on the Boers in a river-bed. His patrol 
made a gallant fight, and as each man finished his ammunition, 



304 THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH 

Lieutenant Gates, as he then was, ordered him to crawl away, 
until, at the end of four hours' fighting, he was left alone. 
Twice during the engagement the Boer commander sent a 
white flag demanding the surrender of the force, but each time 
Gates sent back the reply : ' We are here to fight, not to 
surrender.' Eventually the Boers retired, but with one of the 
last shots fired Gates was wounded in the thigh, the bone 
being broken. For his bravery he was jnentioned in despatches, 
and he became known to his comrades by the soubriquet : * No 
Surrender Gates.' 

Captain Gates was granted leave of absence from his 
regiment to join the Expedition, and was deputed by Captain 
Scott to take charge of the ponies because of his skill with 
horses and his experience as a cavalry officer, especially in 
India, and on the Tibetan Expedition. 

Gates was tall, broad shouldered and athletic; full- of wit, 
humour, and ready repartee, and was one of the kindliest and 
most modest and unassuming of men. A soldier by profession 
and a soldier at heart, he died, a.s he hoped to die, in the service 
of his country, and the whole of his life was summarised in the 
words which Scott wrote of the manner of his death : ' It was 
the act of a brave man and an English gentleman.' 

LIEUT. H. R. BOWERS. 

Lieut, Henry Robertson Bowers — who learnt his sailorcraft 
on the Training-ship Worcester, and served for several years 
in the Indian Gcean and on the Irrawaddy, in the Royal 
Indian Marine — was the Commissariat Gfficer of the Expedi- 
tion. He was chosen by Captain Scott for the Polar Party 
because of his never-flagging energy, strength and efficiency; 
and for the stamina, ability and resource which he had dis- 
played in the unparalleled mid-winter journey to Cape Crozier 
during the present enterprise. 

Bowers' humour and never-failing high spirits were a great 
asset to all his comrades, especially during the months of the 
Polar winter, when long continued darkness might have been 
expected to cast gloom over our little band. His cheery nature 



EPILOGUE 



305 



and pleasant railleries went far to foster the remarkable spirit 
of camaraderie which prevailed. 

There are numerous high tributes in Scott's Journal to his 
hardihood, and to his eagerness to help others; and it was of 
Bowers that the Leader wrote : * I believe he is the hardiest 
traveller that ever undertook a Polar journey, as well as the 
most undaunted. . . . His untiring energy and astonishing 
physique enable him to work under conditions which are 
absolutely paralysing to others. Never was such a sturdy, 
active, undefeatable little man.' 

At the last. Captain Scott wrote : * As the troubles have 
thickened his dauntless spirit ever shone brighter, and he has 
remained cheerful, unselfish, self-reliant, splendidly hopeful and 
indomitable to the end, believing in God's mercy.' 

PETTY OFFICER E. EVANS 

Petty Officer Edgar Evans, the ' strong man ' of the Polar 
Party, w^as a big, broad, sinewy "Welshman — a native of 
Rhossilly, near Swansea. He was in charge of the sledging 
equipment. He had taken part in the Discovery Expedition 
of 1901-4, during which adventure he earned Captain Scott's 
highest praise for his presence of mind and resource in the 
face of difficulties and danger. It was because of the reliance 
that he knew he could place in the strength and ability of this 
fine specimen of the ' handy-man ' of the British Navy, that 
the Leader's selection fell on Evans as one of the chosen four 
to accompany him to the Pole. He knew that Petty Officer 
Evans would ever be ready at a moment's notice to repair any 
damage to sledging gear, and that his previous Polar experience 
would be of the utmost value in times of peril. 

When estimating, as we so often did during the long winter 
months, each other's chances of taking part in the journey to 
the Pole, none ever doubted that ' Taff ' Evans would be 
one of the elect. 

In life. Petty Officer Evans realised his one ambition — to 
stand beside his beloved Chief at the South Pole. In death, the 
once mortal home of his indomitable soul lies deep in the eternal 
ice — his, the uttermost sepulchre on earth. H. G. P. 

20 



3n fJDcmortam 

Not for the fame that crowns a gallant deed 

They fixed their fearless eyes on that far goal, 

Steadfast of purpose, resolute at need 
To give their lives for toll. 

But in the service of their kind they fared, 

To probe the secrets which the jealous Earth 

Yields only as the prize of perils dared, 
The wage of proven worth. 

So on their record, writ for all to know — 

The task achieved, the homeward way half won — 

Though cold they lie beneath their pall of snow, 
Shines the eternal sun. 

O hearts of metal pure as finest gold! 

O great ensample, where our sons may trace. 
Too proud for tears, their birthright from of old. 

Heirs of the Island Race! 

Owen Seaman. 



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